Mind Clouds

Don't hover dark
threatening cloud.
Don't huff by or blow over
before parched ground
is gratified.

Let go. Rain.
Saturate this clay
with life-sustaining water
soften the hard seed
to sprouting.

Strike sulfurous
electric; whirl
stagnant ideas
into chaotic wrecks
of new tranquility.

Rise and paint
wispy strokes
in sublime layers.
Ease in close
as a moist breath of fog.

Together

Our lives have grown together,

like old wisteria vines
interweaving sunward
through an ancient bristling pine.

Spring arrayed in purple bloom,
a weighty downward pull
tender in the fragrant breeze
untamed, free-formed and full.

Tendrils thrusting into summer
twisting forward, dangling free,
irretrievably entangling
these two vines around one tree.

A canopy of mellow green
soon blocks the autumn sun
as surging upward from below
a vibrant new growth runs.

And thus a tethered living rope
prepares for winter wind
one tenacious, knotted helix
against the storms that rend.

Upward growing to the light
till saws of time shall come
to sever roots that bind to earth
and free our spirits home.

©2012 Diana Renfro

Mountain Memoirs, An Ashe County Anthology

Mountain Memoirs, an Ashe County Anthology, is available from Main Street Rag Publishing Company in Charlotte, NC,  $13.95. Authors, Lee Smith, D. G. Martin and A. J. Mayhew are just a few of the excellent story-tellers.

You're going to like this collection of poetry and prose by a mix of new and well-known writers who celebrate this refreshing place and the people we know here. Residents, part-time residents and visitors who love Ashe County will treasure this new book.

My own story in the Anthology is, "Gayle Winston, Cosmopolitan Country," about a ninth generation Ashe County native who enjoys New York and Europe, elegant dining and French cuisine, but firmly holds that, "This is the best place in the world." Her well-known hospitality has brought many to the region to learn for themselves exactly why.

To see the authors' bios or to order from the publisher, go to http://www.mainstreetrag.com/MountainMemoirs.html .

Additional information is available at: http://www.mountain-memoirs.com.