Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place (Kentucky Voices)

by Bell Hooks

Country folk lived on isolated farms away from the city; backwoods folks lived in remote areas, in the hills and hollers. To be from the backwoods was to be part of the wild.

Early on in my life I learned from those Kentucky backwoods elders, the folks whom we might now label “Appalachian,” a set of values rooted in the belief that above all else one must be self-determining. It is the foundation that is the root of my radical critical consciousness. Folks from the backwoods were certain about two things: that every human soul needed to be free and that the responsibility of being free required one to be a person of integrity, a person who lived in such a way that there would always be congruency between what one thinks, says, and does.

Without evoking a naïve naturalism that would suggest a world of innocence, I deem it an act of counterhegemonic resistance for black folks to talk openly of our experiences growing up in a southern world where we felt ourselves living in harmony with the natural world.

one lone warrior lives comes home to the hills

no water for drying thirst just black death smothering earth soot after fire

15. pink and white oleander not native to Appalachian ground still here lies years and years of poison rebel flags heritage and hate in the war to fight hunger and ongoing loss there are no sides there is only the angry mind of hurt bringing death too soon destroying all our dreams of union

overlooking water I stand at the top of the hill looking out see swans on the lake grand plumage more elegant than peacocks their presence mysterious all secrecy how came they to choose Appalachia gracing us with their vision as we climb down to be close to such beauty that it may open our hearts show us such love as to offer no turning back

star of david tree of life double wedding band a nine patch such patterns once shaped our destiny pieces of cloth marking a woman’s life sewn together scraps bits and pieces tell us life stories pieced by hand remnants of passion an unfulfilled desire sisters coming together making peace offering comfort ways to warm to open hearts