Mountains Go Naked
Posted on | November 19, 2009 | 1 Comment
As the leaves completed their fall, this poem popped up — theological and ecological. Let me know what you hear.
Mountains go naked in winter,
wearing no leaves to hide their scars,
exposing the rocks to see the stars,
cast shadows for the moon,
lie open to the slanting sun.
Laid bare by punishing winds,
they wait for snow to blanket bare limbs and cold stone
split in supplication.
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William J. Everett
In my teaching career I authored eight books and numerous articles in social ethics and religion. After over thirty years of academic work — in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as in the United States — I wanted to turn my hand to a poetically written novel to probe the issues of ecological and human reconciliation.
When I am not writing, I create furniture for worship settings. For more about my work, go to www.WisdomsTable.net, where you will also find galleries of artwork by my wife Sylvia, whose ancestors were the original inspiration for Red Clay, Blood River. Click to read my complete bio...
Red Clay Blood River
Red Clay, Blood River is a story told by Earth about two brothers from Germany and an enslaved South African woman whose lives bind together America’s “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s simultaneous “Great Trek” of 1838. Memories of their journeys through oppression, estrangement and reconciliation reverberate in the lives of three contemporary students brought together by their interests in ecology. Through their often difficult friendship and a surprising discovery they begin to unravel the mystery of their estrangements, struggles, and deep connections to each other and to the earth.
Based on extensive research in the United States, South Africa, and England, this book takes readers through a sweeping saga of love and conflict in the context of emigration, invasion, slavery, and exploitation. Through its stories we are invited to see our fractured human history from within the sensibilities of an earth that seeks the flourishing of all creatures and transcends their deaths within its life.
I welcome you to read Excerpts from Red Clay Blood River.
You can also view some Reader's Responses to the book.
If you are already reading Red Clay, Blood River, check out the Reader's Guide and Glossary of Names.
If you are in a Book Club, go to the Guide for Discussion Groups.
If you want to know more about people who helped me in writing this book check out the People Present at the Creation.
November 22nd, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
Bill,
I had the same impression as I was driving home through the mountains. And last night we had a gorgeous crescent moon over Waynesville.
I feel like I am the one “split in supplication” as I wait for them to clear the stone off of I-40. It has the upper hand and those of us who want control are out of luck.
Kathy