Appalachian Winter

Shadows glide across the land As a thousand ravens fly forth -Blocking the setting sun- Like a a dark hand reaching from beyond the horizon. It is Winter. She is returning -Reaching for me- With beckoning fingers To lock me once again in her icy grasp....

The Rev. Dr. Merle D. Correll is the first voice on this track. In the beginning, all was void and without form, And the cosmos was but a mote upon the face of the deep. An unknown grain of sand upon some distant shore, Once could have shamed the cosmos,...

This lake; these lands I stand upon, Have and age - an epoch that can't be known. They bear ancient names; The only remnants of those here before. I like to think that the ravens who come, Bear their wayward souls back to this land they called home. Bu...

Rise! You are Bear! Gone are the wolves. Only you are left. Defy! Show the world who rules the woods! Your heart shall roar with the wind, Your soul defiant of the cold, Your bravery only matched, By your fierce countenance! Rise! 

Beneath this desolation, Beneath this absence of hope, When all is still And only coldness surrounds, Something breathes - The promise of a new Earth Upon the death of the old. Beneath this hopeless winterscape Sleeps that promise. Have I...

Fury is an all-boiling fire, the force of which knows no end. Written in the stars are faint memories Of a blinding epoch of unknowable wrath. Radiate beyond light; boil and expand. Young cosmos, exploding through time, Boil in a rage greater than light...

Under a sky that beheld the sun's departure A Lonely Wind calls. The howling cold Begets fear Damning this wind To solitude. The Howling cold Breaks my heart And pity comes To the Lonesome Wind. Courage I'll find To stand in the Wind And offer m...

Upon this world Even lands wander Upon journeys of thousands of miles. And in this epoch A great ocean dies Before the march of the lands' last embrace. The death of one Earth In genesis of another Brings lands closer to what our ages know....

I felt the passing of someone I loved Spoken within me As a powerful voice To which I can put no color. In that deep night When grief came closer I knew a different world Was upon my breaking heart. "Soon" was the word spoken As the whole o...

Gathering nebulous fires Determine the shapes of great things, For the flash of the past is the explosion of now As the eons build. For the flash of the past is the motion for now As the eons form. See now the shapes of the eons built - Rise, the heav...

Where are all my angels going? Isn’t Heaven bright enough for me to hold one close? One by one, they pass from me. One by one, the world grows colder. One by one, the world loses color. One by one, the world grows darker. Where are all my angels...

Horns of the season sound, Awakening ravens and the wolves. And all before the forest Call the mountains' trees, And pray for deliverance From the freezing breeze. Summer's easy days Forgotten in the shadows of fear. Horns of the season sound And all return...

What are the words For one who can only weep As his loved ones senesce back into the dust From which we all rise? What are the words for one Who can only watch his world die? What are the words? What are the words for when Summer's gentle cou...

Somewhere under the storm's snowfall A tiny life is letting go - Passing from this world as an echo Doomed to fall into the abyss of silence. I cannot bear to imagine the hopeless suffering Of something out there wishing only for its warm home. S...

I mourn for you, dear trees, As your essence is given unto the boiling air, Not because your proud beauty is lost forever, But only in light of knowing that I shall never see thee again in my few meaningless years You burn, but I - I am the one who dies. 

Endless are these frozen winds upon my flesh; Knife-bearing, they slash and tear away My courage, warmth, and will to fight back Until hatred is all that remains of my heart. Endless is the hate this season taught me. Endless too is my fear. Endle...

It's all this moment. It's all these mountains. It's all this cold. It's all this wind. It's all my heart. It's all one. It's all this moment When I am most free And the tides of my soul Rise to their highest. It's all this moment When...

Fire - creating, molding, shaping, Cosmos - descendant, ascendant, transcendent, From one the other explodes. Firehewn is all - the heavens above; the Earth below. Condensation forms as cosmos from fire; Ashes of creation to forever re-enflame. Firehe...

Winterscape -Truly the land of the fallen- For I believe that Hell Could be no colder. The ceaseless, assailing cold, The endless, howling wind, The eternal white blanket, Fall to darkness upon the long-drawn night. And yet when the sky does...

No matter how fierce, you will not break me . . . As the season falls And the ice-beast gathers The world trembles At what is to come. Foul miscreation, no you don't! You'll not have my life! I'll call across time And reach across space To...

Deep in the wilderness, something screams. Deep in the wilderness, something cries for its life. We stand and listen as one unseen entity brutally overpowers another. The unseen struggle, made vivid by presence of sound and lack of sight. Deep in the wildern...

A rock once high upon the mountain has fallen. It stands in the valley now as a tombstone, pre-laid. Even the mountain is not eternal, But I with my limited years stand with it, For it is indeed eternal, by my time. And so we stand together for those few beau...

When these mountains rose, the Earth gained a new beauty. And when these mountains rose, A new soul was brought upon this land. For the mountains sing the tales of the ages, And they bring the heavens closer to the Earth. My mountains stand, so et...

Like this mountain I am cold. Like this mountain I do not forgive. I hold in my heart unmeltable ice, For my commanding fabric was sown together in this season's midst. Season of horror, To match your furious wonder I need only look into my heart, For I am yo...

From oceans rise lands; Heaving themselves from a searing abyss. Upon currents deeper than the sea These lands ride in violence. Mountains rise where they meet, And storms carry them back to the deep. In one epoch, long ago, A great land blocked the sea And...

This, the day our sight beheld the darkened sky And the sick glint of fear was shown in every eye. Lost time and lost life, remembered nigh; Now present and bleeding in every mind. Let there be silence upon the land, that the approaching monster may be known....

Into the Abode of Wolves we are drawn, we, who live so fiercely. We, whose passions burn so brilliantly, howl our rage into the endless sky and consume this moment entirely. Into the Abode of Wolves we are drawn, we, who know no boundaries between our feet an...

Into the abode of wolves we are drawn, we, who live so fiercely. We, whose passions burn so brilliantly, howl our rage into the endless sky and consume this moment entirely. Into the abode of wolves we are drawn, we, who know no boundaries between our fee...

Something harsh approaches. Skies blacken over a world of white. Something in the air tenses, And speaks of Time gone mad. Anger is shown in the sky, As hibernating fears awaken. Aura of evil descends, As a sleeping Winter landscape is touched by Violence. Co...

Hear now, Great Mother of my land, Your ghost haunts all that is here, now, Here, that I call home. Here - now, Laurentia is upon The soul of a northern one Who wishes to know her. Secrets cast in stone And locked by the hands of time Are the...

Nights grow longer and the cold stronger as the world gallops towards icy times. Sun grows weaker. Days grow bleaker. Era of warmth becomes frigid clime. Hold close to your heart memories of a living land. Hold close to your soul the hope of warmer days. The...

Echoes of the cosmos boil still within this tiny world, For all the Earth was once the sky, With the same cosmic storms now inside. So as the Earth has fallen, the mountains rise; Reaching back to heavens so far away. The cosmos lives brilliantly through...

Cold, frozen landscape, a throne of horror widening, image through the soul, weakening hope. Life is a fire that won’t burn forever. It freezes, it fades. Hope is the curse of the individual. It dies with him. Fear is the individual’s lust for life. Paralyzin...

In the depths of the cold seasons, Dreams come to me; Offering hellish torture, Reminding me of what once was. In the plaintive vision, I remember a paradise that once was. Surrounded by warmth, I stood amongst July's proud broadleaves. I stood amongs...

In early twilight hours When the winter horizon glows in white It seems as if the world is truly grande, And the mountains echo across the sky. Starlight ripples in the last moments of its long voyage. Bent by unknowable tides, the night sparkles, And a tiny...

From The freezing night A new era dawns, And the rage of Winter Lays Persecution upon the land. But Northern Blood always boils in defiance, Rising continually after the oppressive cold strikes it down As if the wolves of old still live within my heart, Screa...

Old wisdom shines like light Across the void of time. Old words fight decay From foolish minds. Ages die like fire From the falling rain, As our patriarchs Smile and become the Earth. Fire and rain - Strip me to my bones, As I know my name And clai...

Colossal things rose in my mountains; Born of rocks and men. They found within themselves a thirst for fire. So followed many lands to take of my mountains As monstrous works changed my land forever. It was my land first Where fire was found; The essen...

If freedom was to to fall from the heavens As brilliant orbs of light, The people of the mountains would catch them first And hold them closely to their hearts. If you hold close to your heart A treasure greater than life, You will know death before sep...

Rise to the heavens; Reach out through time. When lands collide, Let the mountains rise. Rise to the heavens as all lands gather, Riding the storms within the Earth. In this brief moment before it seems That all life will die, Something beauti...

We descend into a world of contrast- The fullest white of Winter's rage And darkest black of a winter's night. These months, I know only cold. These months, I know only how to suffer. We descend into a world of fright And come to know our mortality, For deat...

Endless nights of roaring wind, endless days of ocean blue skies over endless mountains within endless days of Winter's wrath. These are the days that build the soul. These are the nights that test the will. These are the hours to gain pure wisdom. These...

Somewhere, in a corner of the cosmos, Long since lost to time, When stars were young, That which we know had its genesis. And so from the remnants of ancient stars long dead, Somewhere, a center was found and destiny followed. And in a sightless, blind...

Storms of Winter leave an aftermath of silence. When one can hear only the breathing of the land, The mountain stands above all -also silent- Demanding nothing to be said. Voices are lost in the wind - never to reach my tired ears. Not one demand stifles thi...

Cold winds can appear to shatter the heavens, As if they were black ice; glinting with starlight. When these nights are long and darkness rules all time, All dimensions fold back and become singular. When the nights are long It's as if Warmth's forgotten...

Fire, ashes fire; - creation upon creation - The cosmos finds new life as the epochs pass. Let light fall upon creation's distant realms. Vaporous seas of essence - once distant - Now entwining, Bear the vortexes that bear the cosmos light. May creat...

Now is when stars build the cosmos. From creation to creation And fire to fire The Stars no longer wander alone To sing from the face of the deep. Now is the epoch of worlds. Glorious creation becoming grander And singing more loudly with distinct ha...

Here is a place haunted, Where shadow and soul are one, And the land hides the horror Of those who ran - ran for the dignity of men. All that remains are stones And whispered memories For hope also fled, And so they died - they died for the dignity of...

Rise to the knowledge of the Earth! Mountain and sea are eternally tied In their vortex - a swirl of re-creation - In an embrace as old as time. The epochs echo those that came before, As the sea and mountains sing the harmony of this world. Rise...

You beasts, what is this you have done To come upon my land and kill my gentle grazers, Who I see torn asunder and dead? You beasts, what is this deviltry, That you come in the night to destroy That which I protect, That which is not wild, That which before yo...

Mountain winds howl Tormented plaintive calls. The land shudders As if in agony. Even during warn times The echoes remain, The fear lingers, As if the land holds its breath. Winter winds upon bare flesh Are as if a knife Held by hateful hands, And thrust by...

Over three days time, My mountains, my beautiful mountains Beheld immeasurable horror! When men came to slaughter men- My mountains beheld this- When souls come to ashes, And Death's roar loudens, Life reduces to the value of lead. When men came The...

Stands there a smaller city upon rivers. In the mountains there, men forged steel under a ghastly shadow. When the rains came, Tragedy was forewritten, For men had declared the river a lake, And when the rains came, the river reclaimed itself. No barri...

Span of the Earth; Many have become but one Ancient giant, For the lands came upon greatness and fused. And in the middle, Mountains like none before Kissed the heavens and stood against All that time could summon. Span of the Earth; Mother...

I am the Mountain. I am Stone. I am the sky. I am the rivers. I am the rain. I am the fog. I am the wind. I am the sun. My rage, played by the storm, My desire, thrown to the sky, My passion, roaring in the wind, All these things are me, and I am they. And wh...

As a cold, fierce wind surrounded me, And slashed painfully through my senses, I heard a warning, that no matter the season, The Great Mountain would not weep for any life it takes. Tension mounts, and another strom rises, Blowing over the Great Mountain. The...

Beauty, lost in the fog, not beheld by eyes longing in the face of pain, not in defeat satisfied. The rage of the sky, shown in the Wind betrays not a temperate clime or the fates of fools lost in the storm never to be seen again. Hail to the sky! I give you...

Uneasy air, Smell of danger, And wind is upon the land, In a sudden rage. All are cowed; Rendered fragile. Under an erupting sky, Only fear can be known. Even the fierce ones, Fall under a black sky. Few are the storms, That thirst not for blood. Roar of...

A nightmare of cold blasts sear through my weakened flesh, and like knives of hardened steel they puncture my very essence. And as the ground reddens from my loss of blood, I come to know that the weight of this day has grown dire. Death-bound, but without fe...

Many pass here, but few are to know. Few live here. They inherit a corner of this world Sweetened by the absence of eyes upon it. A microcosm can reflect a universe. So we live; tiny lives in our forgotten town. Let it be nothing to those who pas...

Now, the essence of sight is free. Now, radiance and creation are one. Essence comes aglow, and the cosmos afire, For the first light is the grandest. Let there be light! Let there be wonder! Let there be heavens that can be seen! Let there be sight!...

How can it be That the river is stronger than the mountain, The water can move the land, That the Rain can crumble to boulder? How can it be? How can it be The the river can stand it ground, And say, "The mountain shall not rise here, And my c...

As waves crash into the rocks, So does the wind upon the Earth. As the oceans are tossed by tides, Sun and Earth move the air. Angry it falls upon the land, To bend and break the proudest trees; The strongest life set to drown, Under an ocean of angry wind! W...

Here comes the wind! Here comes the rage of the sky! Here comes the war, the battle between Earth and Sun. Here comes the rage, a cosmic fury upon the land. Here comes the wind, a power not to be stood against! Here comes the wind to mirror the fury in my sou...

A world of crystal, A world of white, And frozen winds Under endless night. Winds rise; Gray skies blacken. The world becomes One Lonely footstep. The depths of time's raging ocean, The face of cosmic indifference, The persistance of life's greatest agony;...

How I fear December's wrath. Her assaults of ice have brought forth unimaginable pain upon my being. She knows my weakness, Whilst beckoning my fight. Terror wrought in ice: You are my crystalled damnation, You are my frozen nemesis, The coldest judge of my h...

Winterdance upon these hills of old To celebrate the lands that collided long ago That forced our great mountains ever high, That they still stand under the seasons' violent sky. Winterdance! 

A miracle are these mountains; they have withstood. And cruelties many they have defied. A miracle are these mountains, for they still stand. The ages spared no hardship upon this tortured land. Withstand the ages that would see your end. These mo...

Beyond where the Earth meets the Sky, To land where the Cold Winds die, The Empires of Terrible Beasts crumble, Opening the gateway to our Southern Return! Onward we charge, to reclaim the land on which our ancestors died. And we'll find the Beasts who were t...

In darkness, the fear holds. In the quiet, it seems as if fierce ghosts Eye living flesh with cold malevolence. The cold march of time is deception. Epochs die, but their ghosts still remain. So it is with those who knew these mountains, Long before men knew...