Drone String: Poems

by Sherry Cook Stanforth

In this fully mature first book, Sherry Cook Stanforth braids together place, family, and music in imagery that ranges from homey as “hominy and banjos” to taut as a dulcimer’s string. Drone String re-members the familial past, and imagines how, through the integrative power of tradition and memory, that past is part of now, insistent and intact. Vivid portraits and telling anecdotes remind us that all our lives are worthy, full of stories and meaning. A professor-musician, and part of a family band for decades, Stanforth has an ear for how people really sound, and for how poetry dances language into song. ~Dick Hague, author of Where Drunk Men Go

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 14, 2015

Reviews

[Larry Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a strong clear book. The author has been writing for decades, yet this is her first full collection, partly because much of her talent has gone into her making music. These poems are songs as well to the heartland of Appalachia. As poet Paulette Hansel writes; "Poet and musician Sherry Cook Stanforth's long-awaited first collection of poems is as haunting and resonant as the sound of the drone string itself. The sustaining heart of these poems is family in its varied forms--root and branch and the song of wind rustling leaves--rendered always with the poet's keen ear for language, eye for nuance and awareness of the world around her. Stanforth, too, does not shy away from poetry as exploration of self as she considers her place among--and beyond--the people and land that helped form her. '…She wonders who/once stood where she now stands,' Stanforth writes in the book's opening poem. Drone String is both question and answer, not only to 'who once stood" but to who stands now and tells the story that "tells itself again: a steel-spined/woman living in a green land.'"

[Jeffd134 · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful compilation of poems on family, music, nature, life! You hear Sherry's voice through and through while you laugh, cry or simply smell the pot on the stove.

[Ariel Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I was kind of weirded out by this book because the family pictures in the front are almost identical of the ones in my family photo album. After I read through it and am continuing to read it, I have grown to like it. I’ve always had a love hate relationship to my southern roots but reading this book definitely let me feel like “hell yeah I am from the south.” She writes with such passion about this area and even writes about how people judge her based on her roots but she is intelligent and thriving and they are kind of judgmental assholes. She writes about her family in the book too and they memories feel relatable and real which sometimes is hard to capture. I loved her use of language, her ability to intertwine Appalachian slang with her poetry makes it feel so authentically southern and proud, but not in the south will rise again way, the good way. Definitely a read if you are liking for a great and out of the ordinary poetry book

[Kalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a voice she has! Honestly this is something I've been trying to develop. She has a way of capturing Appalachian life without needed a long load of background information. Stanforth will grab you by the shoulders and show you a side of Appalachia that we don't think about, and that isn't necessarily what it's like to live there, but who the people are who live where and shows us that they have their own lives that aren't necessary App centered, but App complemented. I did not look at the photos of her family at the beginning of the work because I didn't want my image of them to be skewed. So After reading the collection and looking back on those photos, the way she writes paints a perfect picture of what they look like without having to describe them in grave detail.

She has a soulful and very down to earth way of presenting Appalachia. If you like images and honest stories, this collection of poetry is for you!