{"id":1095,"date":"2017-01-16T11:19:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T17:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2020-05-30T11:48:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T16:48:32","slug":"the-outlander-by-michelle-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2017\/01\/16\/the-outlander-by-michelle-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Outlander by Michelle Waters."},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Outlander<\/h1>\n

by Michelle Waters<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am an Outlander
\nWho lives on a high hill
\nOverlooking a man-made lake
\nThat once was a rapidly rushing river
\nAlong whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
\nHunted, fished, and created shelter
\nFor their families
\nWhere their children ran freely
\nWhile red-tailed foxes sneaked softly
\nThrough the forests and the
\nWise Night Owl chatted with the
\nWhispering Whippoorwill.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

I am a child of Outlanders
\nWho came from the North
\nTo live along the banks of the man-made lake
\nWhere a small fishing resort, built by my father,
\nNestled at the base of yet another high hill, and from the crest of that hill
\nThe southern arm of the lake could be viewed unhindered.
\nMiles of blue and white water danced in the afternoon sun.
\nBetween Table Rock Dam on my right and Long Creek Bridge on my left,
\nThe main channel branched off- broke loose- and formed the cove
\nWhich we shared with Dan and Cuba Norris at their dude ranch
\nLocated by the side of the Devil\u2019s Pool-
\nThat ancient, sacred, cleansing spring of the Osage men.<\/p>\n

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The back waters of the cove edged our front yard.
\nThe steep, timber and rock strewn slopes cloaked the sides and back of the 80 acres that
\nMr. Curbow sold to my father shortly before the dam\u2019s completion.
\nPerched between the wooded areas, and the cedar glade,
\nA ledge rock served as my look-out, like
\nA sentinel standing guard over acres of scrubby plants and limestone that my father
\nTransformed into grassy green patches and rocked-up retaining walls,
\nLaboring as the pioneer settlers had a century before-
\nHe and my mother, pioneers themselves, carved out a home where
\nDogwood and redbud trees scattered themselves amid the cedar.
\nIn the spring, they checkered the hills in pink and white and green.
\nLater, verbena, black-eyed Susan, coneflower, milkweed, and Indian paint-brush
\nFashioned a palette of ever-changing tones and hues.<\/p>\n

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I am an Outlander
\nWho went to school in a small town that
\nOnce was a humming railroad station where
\nFarmers marketed fruits and vegetables and wild game,
\nShipping their goods out of the land from that
\nTiny railroad town, snuggly fit among limestone bluffs, the White River, and Turkey Creek.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

They tell me, long years ago,
\nThere by the creek, an old woman lived
\nWho washed her clothes on a rock each Monday,
\nWhile her boy played contentedly in the deeper water nearby.
\nGenerations of children splashed gleefully
\nIn that once glistening, iridescent Granny Hole.<\/p>\n

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I am an Outlander who continues to live in a growing town whose people
\nOnce, only provisionally, greeted the laughter of holiday makers- those
\nWealthy sportsmen and their wives
\nWho stepped off the train
\nFrom far off cities
\nTo camp along the water\u2019s edge or
\nTo lazily float the river with Jim Owen in locally crafted Jon boats
\nOr, having read Mr. Wright\u2019s celebrated novel,
\nTrekked the rough and rocky roads in search of
\nOld Matt and Aunt Molly and the shepherd of the hills.
\nCity-dwellers came to embrace, for a time, the goodness of a fading life-style
\nWhen native hill folk families gathered neighborly to
\nFill the valleys with songs of long ago troubadours.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”1103″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Outlanders came, time and time again,
\nTo find balance in themselves within the exquisite Ozark hills, and
\nAs did my parents, and those before them,
\nMany returned to stay.
\nPioneers and Transplanted Outlanders
\nForging common values and visions for the future
\nMutual concern\u00a0of the land.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

I am an Outlander\u2019s daughter who looks out over
\nThese hills and hollows now choked with highway billboard signs, half-empty theatres,
\ngo-cart tracks, and flashing neon lights,
\nI find myself mourning deeply the invasion of
\nGreed-driven, treasure-seeking speculators, whose
\nCoaxing with cunning words triggered an invasion of outsiders
\nSeemingly unconcerned about preserving the natural or cultural landscape
\nI watch family farms transform into cheaply-built, cookie-cutter housing hubs- and
\nI grieve the loss of the quiet, family-owned fishing resorts.
\nTime-share vacation condos, signature golf courses, and shopping malls have
\nSwallowed up centuries-old oak trees
\nToday\u2019s visitors, looking for faster-paced amusements and thrills,
\nArrive in the \u201cLand of a Million Smiles\u201d
\nHell-bent on having manufactured family fun and patriotic fervor.
\nThey rush from venue to venue and shop to shop, then
\nLeave without ever questioning the cost.
\nProgress rides across the landscape as did the
\nBushwhackers and Baldknobbers of old
\nAssaulting the environment,
\nUsurping the ambiance,
\nEroding the ecosystem
\nDeaf \u2014 deaf to the living symphony of nature floating softly in the evening sunset.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”1104″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

I am an Outlander who has lived upon these high hills
\nFor more than a half century
\nAdmittedly sharing in the alteration of the environment, regretfully-
\nBut mindful of the historical richness of the land, the need to preserve its character.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

As does the doe who brings her speckled twins to the clearing in June and the
\nTurkey hen her brood of bobbing-headed babies marching in single file across my yard.
\nI watch my grandchildren
\nRun and laugh and chase fireflies on this ancient slope.
\nThey swim and fish the same waters that shaped the adjacent hillsides eons ago.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Yes, I am an Outlander who lives on a high hill
\nOverlooking a man-made lake
\nThat may, in time, again become a rapidly rushing river
\nAlong whose banks other Outlanders may come to
\nHunt, fish, and seek shelter
\nFor their families.
\nHopefully, their children will run freely
\nWhile red-tailed foxes sneak softly
\nThrough the forests and the
\nWise Night Owl chats with the
\nWhispering Whippoorwill.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”1105″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The Outlander by Michelle Waters I am an Outlander Who lives on a high hill Overlooking a man-made lake That once was a rapidly rushing river Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware Hunted, fished, and created shelter For their families Where their children ran freely While red-tailed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[955,937,957],"tags":[174,177,165,176,166,162,151,175,168,172,161,156,167,173,163,157,169,160,171,164,159,170,158],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hillbillyhistory","category-ozarkwriters","category-sotoevent","tag-aunt-molly","tag-baldknobbers","tag-black-eyed-susan","tag-bushwhackers","tag-coneflower","tag-devils-pool","tag-dogwood","tag-harold-bell-wright","tag-indian-paint-brush","tag-jim-owen","tag-long-creek-bridge","tag-michelle-waters","tag-milkweed","tag-old-matt","tag-osage","tag-ozarks-bluff-dwellers","tag-redbud","tag-table-rock-lake","tag-turkey-creek","tag-verbena","tag-whispering-whippoorwills","tag-white-river","tag-wise-night-owl","category-955","category-937","category-957","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1106,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions\/1106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}