Spruce Wind's Song
Celebrating Appalachian Landscapes
Ivan Norton Hunter (1916-1999) was born and grew up in Richwood, Nicholas County, West Virginia. He wrote poetry inspired by the people and places of his childhood and youth. This selection is from Spruce Wind’s Song, a collection of his poetry which combines his words with evocative images to celebrate these beloved places.
The last few minutes before nine
Play lost sheep in a greenbrier vine
A gnat-smoke climbs cedar high and dies
In the sour grass below the spring
A barn owl sits in a laurel tree and cries
Because he never learned to sing.
Sundown
Out Greenbrier Road
As clouds go or conversations of yesterday
One minute you are here and the next
Gone completely.
I can see through you
Who takes the space we need
Tell me, do memories get wet or cold?
Please come back, and for a start
Let us go looking, by the sea
For an invisible heart.