This Tennessee, My Home Sweet Home to Me

This Tennessee, My Home Sweet Home to Me          February 26, 2006 (Revised October 5, 2006)

From hiking East 
In the Great Smoky Mount,

To Elvis's haint at Graceland
O'erlooking Beale Street,
And the rolling rapids
Of the Mississippi de West;

In Nashville, la chanson de mon coeur
From the Opry permeate
The heartland and our souls,
And in a narrowed land where trainers
Decorate walking horses for show,

You know this is a land 
Of Southern enchantment.

Lo'! But only so unique a land
Could harbor a dry county

In which resides a whiskey distillery.
Still, this strange place is nothing 
If not extraordinaire.
Brave men from this land have marched
To the front lines 
For our homeland voluntarily,
And three Presidents have called this place,
This Tennessee, their home.

Do you seek the history of your heritage?
You have arrived at your destination!
Climb Lookout Mount 
And feast upon seven states,
Take a ride upon the Chattanooga Choo-Choo,
Or peruse Lake Chickamauga battleground.
There is Shiloh in the West,
Where Grant put many “Johnnies” to rest.
Knoxville is the home of Big Orange Country;
Of Marble Springs:
 Governor Sevier's homestead;
The Hermitage near Nashville,
Home of his enemy, President Jackson,
And Greeneville, where Davy Crockett was reared.

God shan't allow me to expand further,
For my space is finite, 
And I must remain at bay.
But there is no place 
Like this land, this Tennessee:
Where the salt of the earth resides, 
Humility bequeaths Pride,
The patriotic, the courage, and gregarious reign.
No other place on our shining city upon a hill
Is measurable to the sweet etudes of my Tennessee:
'Tis home, sweet home, to me.