Blues and Roots/Rue and Bluets: A Garland for the Southern Appalachians

by Jonathan Chamberlain Williams

Jonathan Williams’s poetry has been described as brilliant, sensuous, lyrical, quirky, suave, vital, joyful, sardonic, melodious, passionate, alive, pyrotechnic. This new, much enlarged edition of Blues and Roots displays all of the above. Williams has tramped the Appalachian Trail for decades, botanizing, jotting down specimens of authentic American speech, graffiti, superstitions, and nostrums—always curious, alert, and affectionately attentive. Blues and Roots focuses on the linguistic horizon of Appalachia in lyrics of wonder and light, of wit and comic incongruity, in found poems of the speech of his mountain neighbors. Publishers Weekly said of the earlier edition, “One of the most beautiful and evocative tributes to the Appalachians and its people yet published.” Blues and Roots is a fine celebration; Wiliams is a joyful ringmaster.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

March 8, 1929 - March 16, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/boo...

Writer, photographer, and publisher. Founded the Jargon Society Press.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

These won't be to everyone's taste; but you could say the same of Joe Brainard's I Remember sentences. Both classic. Jonathan Williams, poet, photographer, editor, hears sayings, idioms, and expressions as no pock on an epigram: there's a pressure Williams is putting on the found-language text of his Highland, North Carolina pocket in the Blue Ridge that in a sense mystifies the poetic -- a concomitant mystification to Blue Ridge fiddle tunes, or blood harmonizing. This was no less true of Creeley's analysis of his own spoken syntax, btw. You get a taste of that mystique from the outset, where Williams quotes his father:

all the old things
are gone now

and the people are
different

That being the case, there's reason for the documentation, however, and the warrant makes all the difference. It's not all to Williams' elucidation, moreover:

more mouth on
that woman

than ass
on a goose

This does not "accord" with our sensibilities, however it reaches our taste, but Williams saw enough signs that said -- this, on the next page -- "ASS IS NICE," to realize the loopholes in all this law, and how "freedom" as advertised gets a damper on thought.

[Zuska · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary collection. So glad I found this!

One of my favorites, "Snuffy Smith's Colossal Maw From War-Woman Dell"

more mouth on
that woman

than ass
on a goose

[Ben Yaxley · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible, the kind of poetry i need

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome, and not just because of the poem about a neon sign whose full text is "O'NAN'S / AUTO / SERVICE"