Sherry Chandler

Dorothy Sutton

Women writing in Kentucky today share two themes.

One is a loss of culture. Not nostalgia precisely, though it can look a little like it. Rather an urgency to record what was of value about the older skower ways before they disappear.

The second is an honoring of our elders, a need to record the extraordinary heroism of their ordinary lives (a phrasing I think I may have stolen from my friend Georgia Green Stamper).

In Backing Into Mountains (Wind Publications, 2009), Dorothy Sutton explores these themes with extraordinary grace, whether it be the Appalachian schoolbus drivers and mechanics of the title poem:

Your life depends on brakes and lights
up here in these Kentucky hills.
The school bus whines and groans to climb
through hollers, with creek-beds the only roads.
. . .
We try to maintain machines that can roll
without crashing, hold the young ones
back from the edge . . .

or Uncle Lester in “No Man’s Land”

One day he was husking the corn,
feeding the greedy, muddy pigs,
. . .
the next day halfway around the world
in Paris with the prostitutes of Pigalle
. . .
The next day mired in confused
trough trenches of muddy slop
. . .
the next day back in Pike County
slopping the hogs, begging the world
to stop . . .

This selection shows not only Sutton’s great compassion but also her craft: the circling around the sounds and images of pigs and slop in a way that is both humorous and heartbreaking.

Sutton explores far and wide in the matter of Kentucky, from Gorgeous George and Casey Jones to Robert Penn Warren and George Keats.

“Casey Jones” is one of my favorite poems in this collection. Having grown up in a singing/strumming family, as many of us here in Kentucky did, I love the play on the theme of this most famous of all train ballads (not to be confused with the Grateful Dead’s Casey Jones) .

We’re the children of “Casey” Jones
from Cayce, Kentucky. In 1900,
Casey Jones died trying
to find the time he’d misplaced somewhere
between Memphis and Mississippi.
. . .
They dug him out, one legend says,
one hand on the throttle, to increase his speed,
the other hand firmly gripping the brake.

Here is the central dilemma of the theme of loss of culture. We tend, us older folk in Kentucky, to come from timeless sorts of places but now we are very much caught up in the rush of time. Our roots are in the folkways, our branches embrace Richard Dawkins and Picasso.

And right about now, Uncle Lester is crying “Whoa, damn you,” not just to the mule of the twentieth century but also to that last metaphor. Both of ‘em kind of got the bits in their teeth and took off.

Here’s a much better extended metaphor, from the Richmond Register:

Dublin poet Eileen Casey said recently of Sutton’s work: “The title poem of this collection pays tribute to the tenacity of the bus drivers of Appalachia, a cultural region in the Eastern United States, forced to breathtakingly negotiate very difficult terrain. In the same way, Dorothy Sutton takes each poem (and us) from one imaginative location to another, by the sheer force of her deep and intimate knowledge of what it is to be human. The poems are exquisitely crafted, steering through words, like those Appalachian bus drivers, trying to maintain machines that can roll without crashing, hold the young ones back from the edge, carry them all the places they need to go. These poems are a joy to read, in terms of capturing the cadences of lives lived and voices heard in the Kentucky of her childhood, different and yet the same as mine in Ireland. An emotional bridge is formed between Kentucky and the rest of the world, indeed a breathtaking reading experience.”

Dorothy Sutton is reading this Tuesday, March 9, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning’s Kentucky Great Writer series. It’s an evening to celebrate Wind Publications. Her fellow readers are J. Stephen Rhodes, author of The Time I Didn’t Know What to Do Next (my remarks here) and Normandi Ellis, author of Fresh-Fleshed Sisters. The festivities begin with open mic signups at 6:30, featured readings begin at 7:30.

They call it stormy Monday

It’s George Washington’s birthday, Google is playing Big Brother (a move that seems somewhat hypocritical, given Google books), Dick Cheney is still bragging with impunity about his war crimes, The NYTimes says millions of the unemployed will go for years without finding jobs, and last week’s snow has been replaced by this week’s drizzle. Seems like a good time to go play with the Code Organ. Thanks to Dave and Terry.

I should remind you of a couple of good readings this week in the local area.

Holler Poets Reading Series 22 is scheduled for Wednesday February 24th at Al’s Bar, 601 North Limestone, Lexington. Featured readers are Leatha Kendrick and Brett Eugene Ralph, music by underground legend Paul K. open mic begins at 8:00 p.m.

On Thursday, February 25th at 7 PM, Carmichael’s Books, 2720 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, will host an event with authors Bob Hill and Jim Tomlinson that will be part reading, part reunion and plenty of fun. Longtime Courier-Journal columnist and author Bob Hill and award-winning Berea writer Jim Tomlinson will discuss their work and the unlikely paths that led two high school classmates from a small town in Illinois into writing careers that would converge in Kentucky decades later. The event runs from 7:00 – 9:00.

For other local reading events, check out the Kentucky Literary Newsletter.

Thanksgiving greetings

Except for those of you downunder, in which case I wish you crops in the field and not too much heat.

TR took the photo. They were taken, of course, in October. The trees are almost all bare now, and though mornings are still misty, October was prettier. I’d been looking for an excuse to use this photo.

I’m not one to make a big deal of holidays. I tend not to like to be grateful or jolly on demand. And there’s something smug about Thanksgiving.

Which reminds me that I heard on WEKU news the other day that God’s Pantry in Lexington has received a record number of requests for God’s Pantry Thanksgiving baskets:

Mandy Brajuha, who’s a spokeswoman for the Lexington-based program, says more families than ever are participating in the holiday program.

“That number of families was always about 3,500 to 4,000 and we’ve jumped way up over the 5,000 mark this year which really mirrors everything we are seeing in our operation right now,” Brahuja said.

Needy families are picking up Thanksgiving baskets at five pantries in the Lexington area. Brajuha says their numbers have gone up almost three fold over a three year period.

The Salvation Army also got its bellringers out well before Thanksgiving this year in hopes of raising extra funds for the extra demand on their resources.

So, as a nation and as a state, I hope we can approach Thanksgiving with humility and generosity.

And that gives me a chance to mention the second Literary Café South at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar on Tuesday, December 1st, at 8 p.m. All proceeds of the night will go to God’s Pantry Food Bank, providing food for the hungry of Central and Eastern Kentucky. This is the second of a semiannual series, hosted by David Park Musella, who will also be one of the readers at the event. Also reading will be poets Rebecca Gayle Howell, Leatha Kendrick, and Eric Sutherland. Music will be provided by jazz artist Kokichi Tagawa. And I think the cover is $8.

__________
Added: A Poem for Wild Turkeys.

The Heartland Review reading

Reading at the Gaines Center for The Heartland Review

I had me a some big fun at the reading last night. Mick Kennedy and Ted Higgs know how to put on a laid-back event. And let me tell you, if you don’t know these poets, I suggest you look ‘em up.

With Laurie MacKellar, we comprise the editorial board, poetry division, of The Heartland Review. I’m proud to be associated with this group and urge you to send us your best work.

(I’m not sure about the deer-in-the-headlights look in the photo. I look like I’m seeing some of the demons from my own poems.)

OCTOBER 22!! Mark your calendars for The Heartland Review’s poetry reading at the University of Kentucky’s Gaines Center for the Humanities from 7:00-8.30pm, 232 E. Maxwell St. Featured readers are Scott Woodham, Yvonne Morris, Ted Higgs, David Harrity, Erin Keane and yours truly. The event is free and open to the public.

Sheesh! I forgot the date. Am I ditzy or what?

Friday morning musing

Well, well, well. Congratulations to Barack Obama for having won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. In the last eight years, Peace Prizes have gone to Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and now Barack Obama. I think perhaps the Nobel committee is sending the United States a message, inviting us to come home to what they see as our true role in the world.

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Herta Müller, a Romanian-born German novelist with whose work I am not familiar.

Coming down to earth and closer to home, I had a big time at the Stars with Accents reading last night. Katerina Stoykova-Klemerer and James Brown put together a great set of readers with a wide variety of styles and genres from a great series of shows.

Accents, by the way, made the top three local radio shows in Ace Magazine’s annual Best of Lex ratings. Not bad for a newcomer who interviews poets!

And speaking of interviewed poets, I owe a debt of gratitude to my friend and fellow Green River Writers poet Sheri Wright, who in her September 25 interview on Accents chose my Dance the Black-Eyed Girl as the notable book of the week. She read my poem “Toxicodendron radicans.”

Sheri and Sonja DeVries were partnered for a great interview. You can listen to the podcast of that show and most of the others at this link. Sheri has a couple of notable books out herself, including one that gets my vote for best title, Contains Scenes of Indigenous Nudity. Her discussion of the origins of that title and her musings on why “indigenous” nudity is okay while other nudity is considered pornographic are worth a listen, especially her reading of the poem “Contains Scenes of Indigenous Nudity, the Upper Half.”

You can buy Sheri’s books at Carmichael’’s in Louisville.

By the way, WRFL was taping last night’s readings and I think highlights will be played on future broadcasts of Accents.

Upcoming Events

TR will be at the KGAC Fall Fair, October 10 & 11, at the Indian Fort Theater on Highway 21E in Berea, Kentucky. I’ll probably be hanging around on Sunday.

TR will have three pieces in the exhibit Kentucky Wood at the LexArts gallery going up on October 9 and showing through November 29. Mon – Fri 9 – 5, Sat 10-4

The Heartland Review hosts a poetry reading at the University of Kentucky’s Gaines Center for the Humanities from 7:00-8.30pm, 232 E. Maxwell St. Featured readers are Scott Woodham, Yvonne Morris, Ted Higgs, David Harrity, Erin Keane and yours truly. The event is free and open to the public.

Stars with Accents