Through The Cumberland by cvfrizzo

Through the Cumberland is a setting of “Two Haiku from the Cumberland Mountains” by poet and friend, Britton Shurley. These poems depict scenes from our shared home state of Kentucky. The first haiku conjures images and sounds of an evening shower. I associated the falling raindrops bouncing off an “old tin roof” with the jaunty and exciting rhythms of Old-time music. I envisioned a social gathering of the first pioneers of Kentucky and included textual adaptations from the lyrics of “Cumberland Gap.” The second movement includes some of the text and music from the ballad of “John Riley.” This song is the story of the Scottish, Irish, and English settlers who migrated for the promises of the colonies. The desire for land and freedoms led these people westward drifting towards the hills of Appalachia and to their eventual disappearance into the wilderness of backwoods America.