Wildwood Flower: Poems

by Kathryn Stripling Byer

In Wildflower Flower , whose title derives from a traditional country song, Byer speaks through the fictional voice of a mountain woman named Alma, who lived in the Blue Ridge wilderness around the turn of the century. In narrative and lyric, Byer’s poems sing a journey through solitude, capturing the spirit and the sound of mountain ballads and of the women who sang them, stitching bits and pieces of their hardscrabble lives into lasting patterns. The landscape Byer depicts is haunted by disappointed love and physical hardship, but it is blessed with dogwood and trillium, columbine and hickory, and streams that sing a ballad as strong as any Alma has learned from mother or grandmother. Through these natural details and through Alma’s indomitable voice, Kathryn Stripling Byer has brilliantly recreated a lost world.

Genres: Poetry

68 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Kathryn Stripling Byer was raised on a farm in Southwest Georgia, where the material for much of her first poetry originated. She graduated from Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia, with a degree in English literature, and afterward, received her MFA degree from UNC-Greensboro, where she studied with Fred Chappell and Robert Watson, as well as forming enduring friendships with James Applewhite and Gibbons Ruark. After graduation she worked at Western Carolina University, becoming Poet-in-Residence in 1990. Her poetry, prose, and fiction have appeared widely, including Hudson Review, Poetry, The Atlantic, Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Southern Poetry Review. Often anthologized, her work has also been featured online, where she maintains the blogs "Here, Where I Am," and "The Mountain Woman." Her body of work was discussed along with that of Charles Wright, Robert Morgan, Fred Chappell, Jeff Daniel Marion, and Jim Wayne Miller in Six Poets from the Mountain South, by John Lang, published by LSU Press. Her first book of poetry, The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest, was published in the AWP Award Series in 1986, followed by the Lamont (now Laughlin) prize-winning Wildwood Flower, from LSU Press. Her subsequent collections have been published in the LSU Press Poetry Series, receiving various awards, including the Hanes Poetry Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Poetry Award, and the Roanoke-Chowan Award. She served for five years as North Carolina's first woman poet laureate. She lived in the mountains of western North Carolina with her husband and three dogs. (from the author's website)

Reviews

[Michael Kocinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

No question about it, this collection of lyrical, narrative poems is one of the most remarkable collections I’ve ever read. The poems are so visual, so specific, so well made I felt completely immersed in the Blue Ridge mountains. I felt close enough to Alma, the voice in the collection, to touch her skirts or hair. It felt breathtaking to be so carried away by poems. I actually read this collection a few years ago but this time around it was so much more rewarding. 10/10 you should read.

[Peggy Heitmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the concept of this work of fiction through poems. Kathryn can make the names of the trees and foilage sound romantic and ethereal. There is a sense of time collapsing on itself and moving over a mountainous terrain that is described at one point so cold and harsh that the reader can feel the raw, brutal icey elements seep into one's own bones, and Kathryn pulls her readers along the slowly emerging rebirth of a long awaited spring. Each line creates a picture, an story, a feeling, and after all isn't what poetry is all about?

[Marianne Mersereau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely imagery of the Southern Highlands in this collection written in the voice of a woman residing there during frontier days. The narrative poems paint a picture of both the hardships and joys. My favorite in the book is called "Easter."

[Holly Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a woman of Appalachia, this book of poems resonated with some deep part of me. It made me think about what the women in my lineage would have experiences as they lived in Western North Carolina in times past. I will definitely be reading more of this poet’s work!

[Caleb Lail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and to the point, it’s a sweet collection of poems, well drawn, tasting like the nature of the south, the spirituality of nature, and the tenacity of the feminine spirit. Totally recommend!

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Melissa Landon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry isn’t usually my thing, but I enjoyed it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most amazing book of poetry I have ever read. Byer assumes the personae of a woman living in the rough, alone, and pining for her partner. The tone is haunting and melancholic; the language is magical. It delighted me to read it, in spite of the sometimes dreary subject matter. Sparse, clear, elemental. Big wow!

[Jadwiga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant collection of poetry. Byer is a modern great. I was captivated by the book and disheartened that my journey had come to an end upon reading the last line of River Bed, the final poem. The spirit of the Blue Ridge woman breathes through each poem presented here.

[Joon · Rating 5 out of 5]

so many wonderful poems in here. all loosely following a woman living a winter alone in Appalacia. I loved it so effing much. The one called sister. wow. Thanks Tara.