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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

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a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

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none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

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this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's

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time that you get to know what has inspired me

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for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Welcome back to the forest. The King of this forest. Oh,

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it's got a king, and this little green bird will

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tell you I am king. Ernie sits about twenty three

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twenty four feet up off the forest floor, overlooking the beautiful.

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Speaker 2: Trees, the lake, the creek. He sees it all. He

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is the king of the forest, and on a cool

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day like this one forty five degrees, I usually don't

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open up the drapes so that Ernie can see his forest.

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The king he awaits, but the King doesn't like to wait.

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He wants to look out at all the crows. He

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wants to see all the squirrels, the hawks, the owls.

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He'll shout at anybody, especially the deer when they come

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very very close, even though he's twenty three to twenty

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four feet above the forest floor, doesn't matter. He's the king.

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He's got his own protection, and it's himself. He's the

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one that sounds off the alarm. And if you don't

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believe me, the part of the forest he can't see

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is that that leads to it, the roads, the people

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walking on paths outside his viewing area. He's the king

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because he can hear them talking, and he gets angry

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because who dareth walk on his forest floor? This is mine?

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The king, a little green bird, a blue crown conyer

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that thinks this is his forest. And whatever you do,

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don't disrupt his day of play if it means the

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human has got to get up, turn the heat up,

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and allow him to see outside, because who needs the

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drapes when the king wants to see his trees? Hi, Merril,

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thanks for being part of the conversation.