Mississippi, My Muse

I started writing as a emotional release as a teen in the '90's. My chosen style was poetry since my brain is hard wired to appreciate anything with a beat, anything with rhythm. I still write poetry now and then but it is only about once a year at most when I get a line of verse in my head that will not let go until I write it down. Once it's out, down on paper, my brain is mine again.

Mississippi is like that. It grabs a hold of you in soft places you did know you had and roots there, so that when an outsider scoffs at your state, your hackles rise and you mentally bow up. Sometimes you verbally bow up too. I can talk shit about my state but you… you shut your mouth.

You will never know exactly how nuanced the color and texture of green can be until you spend a spring in Mississippi. We are a state of extremes, the horrible alongside the wondrous both at the same time, and while our state's capital led the nation in pollen levels last week, the explosion of flora almost makes up for it. When the weather is right, which means not 80 degrees yet, we’ll have azaleas blooming for a couple of weeks while the trees start to unfurl new leaves. It is heartbreakingly beautiful. I turn off the radio on the drive to work every morning during these weeks just so I can LOOK, so I can soak it all in. I do not want to miss any of it even though this is my 35th spring in the state.

The deep waxy green of the evergreen magnolias and dark green of the longleaf and shortleaf pines, Leland cedars against the bright yellow greens of the white oaks, red oaks, and the brown green of the live oaks. The Crayola 120 box doesn’t have this many greens in it.

It’s an entirely different scene in the low spots, the slews, creek bottoms and river flats. Sweet Bay Magnolias and pale-barked River Birch mingle with Bald Cypress and Pond Cypress with their feathery fronds and “knees” sticking up from the mud. Southern Crabapple bloom pink and white, the Mayhaw puts out its leaves and blooms while the Dogwood blooms first then adds the leaves a few days later. Eastern Redbud adds its pink blooms to the overall color of the woods and now you see why I so enjoy watching the changing colors of the season. I can not describe it adequately. You have to live it.

Cypress trees planted in Downtown Hattiesburg.

A friend from California came for her first visit to Mississippi and could only exclaim repeatedly, “Everything is so GREEN. There’s so much GREEN.” Another friend from Dallas (Hi, Melissa) said, “There are TREES EVERYWHERE.” I had not even thought about it before. I thought they must have cut down the trees in the other places! Trees work their way into every square acre they can get to here. If you don’t want a grove of trees volunteering on your property, you have to either keep it mowed or plowed. Constantly. A field allowed to go fallow will produce a head high crop of native trees and scrub bushes in a 4 years that you can’t walk through.

This picture is not photo shopped. The grass is really that green.

I am equal parts ashamed of the history of our state and its current politics, statistics and some of its citizen’s mindset while being seam-splittingly proud of the culture, hospitality, beauty and heritage that we have and promote. As I said, we are a state of extremes.

Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” I refer to this quote not to suggest that Mississippians alone need to travel but to say that you, the person who has never spoken to a Mississippian, who only knows the state through the horrible stories the media broadcasts, who makes snide comments about us without really knowing of what you speak; you need to visit Mississippi. Come let me show you my state. Come the first week of April and let me show you the glory of a fuzzy green azalea leaf beside a hot pink blossom while the whole shrub is buzzing with bees from miles around. Let me show you the flat of the Delta and the hills of Vicksburg. The sunken soil of the Natchez Trace and where the blues were born in Clarksdale. Let me teach you how to peel an fresh caught Gulf shrimp in Biloxi. Let me educate you about exactly what a “buggy” is at the grocery store and introduce you to my neighbors. I’ll show you how to smile and wave at strangers, to nod and say hi as you’re passing each other on the sidewalk. I’ll give you recipes that will never taste as good when you make them (because you can’t get Duke’s mayo where you live, bless your heart). We know how to live so well in Mississippi, know how to enjoy things so deeply, we can teach you how too and we are always ready for a good, long visit here. I promise you will not leave unchanged and I am not talking about your waistline.