Cabin in the Blue Ridge

by Helen Sadler

Response to Invitation #3

As it tends to happen, many things converged to create this particular piece of writing. I started with my sacred list, which ended up double the size it needed to be. Here is a sampling:

1. pink quartz chunk of rock
2. cabin in North Carolina
3. Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends album
4. Ryman Auditorium
5. Longwood Park in Macedonia, Ohio
6. James Taylor's Hourglass album
7. vision I had in Cuyahoga National Park, August 1994
8. Common Boundary conferences 1993-97
9. Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico
10. labyrinth in Mesopotamia, Ohio
11. Ruby and diamond wedding ring
12. Van Gogh's art

After "listening to my list," I made a couple of false starts. But it was when I was reading about songwriting and listening to my new Nashville Cats album, I heard what I needed to do.

I have been inspired by two things: Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash singing "Girl from the North Country," and my friend Natalie's version of a song by Nirvana that she rewrote as a song about teaching writing.

The words to "Girl from the North Country" can be found here, and is based on a ballad from the Middle Ages "Scarborough Fair" (yes, the same one Simon and Garfunkel did. For more info, read here.)  I have expanded it a bit, as I was writing about a place that I visited many times and during different seasons. I wanted to capture the autumn, the summer, and the spring in that very reduced way that is required of songwriting. I believe I've succeeded in giving certain images. To further the "tone," I have included Roseanne Cash singing the Dylan song below, since her voice feels like the way I hear this in my head. (Song begins around 1:40, but it is worth hearing what she has to say about the song and her father.)

If you're traveling up the Blue Ridge way
where the mountains and the sky combine
remember me to a beloved cabin there
it once was a sacred place of mine.

If you go when the cool autumn falls
when reds and yellows and oranges explode
sit on the porch and listen to loons call
the glowing twilight on the river slowed.

Well, if you go when the summer shines bright
the glorious goldenrod in flawless fellowship 
rhododendrons crowd the woods, pink and white
canoes on the river through the rapids slip.

Please see if the giant elm is there
blackberry bushes in reach for a treat.
Wild turkey families running everywhere.
Indigo buntings fast as a heartbeat.

If you go as the winter snows decrease
when the river rises and sometimes floods
settle inside by the hearth for peace
patiently wait for the trees to share buds.

I'm a-wondering if the proud chimneys still stand
If the spring water relies fresh and clear
I visit in my dreams.
I long to be near.

So, if you're traveling up the Blue Ridge way
where the mountains and the sky combine
remember me to a beloved cabin there
it once was a sacred place of mine.