Cord Byrd: “today is the 140th birthday of West Virginia: West Virginia, how I love you! Every streamlet, shrub and stone, Even the…”

“today is the 140th birthday of West Virginia: West Virginia, how I love you! Every streamlet, shrub and stone, Even the clouds that flit above you Always seem to be my own. Your steep hillsides clad in grandeur, Always rugged, bold and free, Sing with ever swelling chorus: Montani, Semper, Liberi! Always free! The little streamlets, As they glide and race along, Join their music to the anthem And the zephyrs swell the song. Always free! The mountain torrent In its haste to reach the sea, Shouts its challenge to the hillsides And the echo answers ``FREE!'' Always free! Repeats the river In a deeper, fuller tone And the West wind in the treetops Adds a chorus all its own. Always Free! The crashing thunder, Madly flung from hill to hill, In a wild reverberation Makes our hearts with rapture fill. Always free! The Bob White whistles And the whippoorwill replies, Always free! The robin twitters As the sunset gilds the skies. Perched upon the tallest timber, Far above the sheltered lea, There the eagle screams defiance To a hostile world: ``I'm free!'' And two million happy people, Hearts attuned in holy glee, Add the hallelujah chorus: ``Mountaineers are always free!'' It is that time of year again. It is that time when the flowers are in full bloom and birds are chirping the sweetest and the loudest. It is that time when you feel most like breathing the clean, fresh air blowing in from the Appalachian mountains.…”