Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry

by Sue Brannan Walker and J. William Chambers

An anthology of poems that reference Alabama.

Genres: Poetry

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

Reviews

[Devin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book as a gift almost 10 years ago from my high school non-fiction teacher, who has a poem in this book (pg. 7 -- TJ Beitelman) and tried to read it for years; I would pick it up, put it back down, pick it up, put it back down, etc. I was born and raised in Alabama and for years, hated it. I hated living there, couldn't wait to leave, as a lot of angsty teenagers long for. Then suddenly I was an adult and quickly moved away (seriously -- I moved out of Alabama 36 days after I graduated high school) and then like...I missed it. I was missing home -- Florida isn't too terribly far from Alabama, especially where I lived, but it seemed like two different worlds. I missed Birmingham, I even sort of missed the podunct town I grew up in.

I finally decided to tackle this book because in the recent years, I've started learning ACTUAL history about Alabama; workers struggles, the LGBTQ movement (which I was a part of), the history of socialism and class struggle in Alabama (read Hammer and Hoe, seriously), the Civil Rights Movement, etc. Alabama has such a rich, vast history that is often just covered up by dumbass yuppies in Seattle calling us all inbred hicks in a Buzzfeed article or some shit. This book made me miss home. I love Alabama now, but I'd never live there again if I could help it; absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all. Being away from the place where I spent the first 18 years of my life has certainly made me appreciate it, and this book also made me appreciate it more.