with thanks to Denise Krebs for encouraging “multiple languaged” poems for today’s Ethical ELA Open Write and NCpedia for shedding a little more light on name origins…
In the Place of the Sweet Trees
Long ago, the first People knew the river.
They named it for the trees growing there
where spice-bark and great white flowers
perfume the air.
In this place of the sweet trees
along the riverbank
a vine began to grow.
It bore fruit in the shape
of spheres
of the Earth itself
as yet unknown.
Thick-hulled green-gold
pearls of the vine
that the People named
for the blackwater river
in the place of the askupo,
those heavy, fragrant trees
rooted in swampy soil.
The People, standing in the cool shadows
of the sweet trees by the river,
tasted the askuponong,
the scuppernong,
and understood
the Divine.
lit bits and pieces 
Fran, the descriptions in your poem are filled with beautiful descriptions. I can see you reading this poem out loud like many of the griot storytellers. This is a wonderful narrative poem that makes me want to read it over and over again.
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I so appreciate your words here, Carol – I tend to think of myself more as storyteller vs. writer or poet.
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