Lion’s Head/Rocky Point

It is a chilly, late fall, early winter sort of day—colder here in the mountains than down in the

surrounding valleys.

I am standing in one of my favorite spots in all the world—Lion’s Head, or Rocky Point in the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area of West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest.

I have been to this rock-strewn outcrop and pine tree studded sanctuary many times before. As always, I stand in awe.

Here, where warm summer breezes have caressed bare arms and legs, and winter winds now chill exposed face and hands and even body parts clad in worsted wool and crinkly nylon.

As I stand in the midst of this wooden, tree lined cathedral; I look out over the granular stony apse and altar and look out over the Red Creek drainage far below.

Reaching out to touch a tall, straight, pine trunk in front of me, I feel its rough, corrugated bark, spotted with sticky sap as the trunk reaches heavenward toward the blue sky above.

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I began working on this at the West Virginia Writer’s Fall 208 Conference as I responded to a prompt in a Poetry Workshop presented by Kari Gunter-Symour. The prompt involved thinking about my favorite place in the world and then describing the scene.

Here is a link to the projects I began at the West Virginia Writer’s Fall 208 Conference.
https://summittoshore.blogspot.com/2018/11/poetry-from-west-virginia-writers-fall.html