Poem read at the Festival on the Fourth in World's Fair Park, July 4, 2018
By Marilyn Kallet
Knoxville Love Song
Knoxville, you unfurl
When dogwoods burst
Like jazz hands in the April wind.
You explode our skies in July
When America came to be.
No easy birth, so
Each July we renew
Our vows, here
In the cradle of magnolias
And maples,
In the garden of poets: Nikki G.,
R.B. Morris, James Agee.
Knoxville, you gleam in every
Season, and we adore your
Buds and brazen
Crepe myrtle.
We dedicate these song-
Blossoms to our mothers
And fathers, to
Our children who will
Tend them.
Knoxville, you lend perfume
To sultry summer evenings,
You promise a symphony of fragrances
And blooms. You offer the
Knoxville Symphony,
Fired up each July.
You are playing our proud love song,
Knoxville, Tennessee.