George Nixon: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was raised in and around Edenton, NC, mostly working on farms. I learned about enduring August heat, working with mules, and how to get to the end of the next row of peanuts by singing and creating diversions in my head. All that served me well in later life. I learned the 3 R"s and ended up in Richmond, VA. where I have been a counselor for the last 30+ years
Philip C. Kolin: “Farewell Big Easy: A Post-Katrina Eulogy”
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I am married to one of the most beautiful Southern belles from Mobile.
C. B. Anderson: “Some Dark Hollow”
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I’ve wanted to live in the South since my college days, in the late 60’s. In part, this was due to a desire to find a climate nearly ideal: higher elevations in lower latitudes, such as southern Appalachia or perhaps the Ozarks. Later, I nursed a wistful wish to dwell where people encountered on the street were more likely to say “good morning” than to avert their eyes.
Although I have never lived in the South for any great length of time, I have seen the dogwood blooming along I-40 in Tennessee, camped out in the Great Smoky Mountains one early spring not too far from Asheville, NC, helped a friend erect a greenhouse in Melfa VA, eaten some awesome pork-laden collard greens near Pine Mountain GA, and watched the sun set over the bay in Biloxi MS. I could go on.
The South is the epicenter of bluegrass music, and that fact alone might have been enough to clinch it for me.
A. C. Lambert: “Poem to that great big Boss in the sky”
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I kissed a girl once in a fellowship hall. And no I'm not telling you who it was—she still goes to church there.
Cynthia Manick: “Ethel September”
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Fish sandwiches after church. Blue hallelujahs. Gossip. Grits on toasted Wonder Bread, never wheat. And tea so sweet, it makes your teeth hurt. I’m a northern transplant but Santee, South Carolina is my original home. People visit there now for its golf courses and to drink at Myrtle Beach. But I miss the paper plant that smelled like sugar when crossing the bridge, my grandfather’s shop that sold boiled turtle eggs and bootleg crab, and the red ants and bullfrogs that followed me around during the summers.
JD DeHart: “Coffee Cans”
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I am a resident of Tennessee and grew up in West Virginia. My poems come from life in the South.
Mark Windham: “Different Flowers”
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Born in Mississippi before living in Kentucky, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida (in the South, but not Southern) and settling in Georgia.
It is not 'hot' until above 95, nor humid below 95%. Anything less is 'muggy' at best.
Catfish is only meant to be cooked by frying in cornmeal. Blackened is acceptable if a fryer is not available and you have kin from New Orleans to tell you how.
Sweet potatoes are a vegetable.
Cornbread does not contain flour, only cornmeal, and it is best served for breakfast Monday morning extra crispy with butter and sorghum.
Most parts of every meal can be cooked in a cast iron skillet, possibly the same one. Sometimes at the same time.
