Category: Poetry

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Evelyn Seay: On the Dock in September

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised in Yorktown, Virginia I recently relocated to study Poetry at George Mason University. There, I have learned that I miss drinking real sweet tea on my humid back porch, watching my 4th of July Fireworks on the Yorktown Battlefield and seeing people dressed in colonial-era garb on a regular basis. My fondest memories stretch across the south, from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and Tennessee's Appalachia to Lake Gaston and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, then farther still to the swamps of Florida. Editor's Note: The Dead Mule is always pleased when we learn that we are the publisher for a poet's first published poem. Congratulations, Evelyn. **
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Mary Laura Philpott: Sisterhood

Southern Legitimacy Statement: We moved around a lot growing up. Born in Nashville, now in Atlanta, I’ve left pieces of my youth in Chapel Hill, Hagerstown, Memphis, Augusta, Davidson, and Charlotte. I married a boy from the Kentucky bluegrass, and our babies wear seersucker and say yes ma’am. I learned to snap beans from my grandmother in Birmingham and perfected the art of deveining shrimp with a Palmetto Pale Ale cradled in my elbow during summers in South Carolina. When asked where I’m from, I just say “the South.” **
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Ray Sharp: Wind Fierce as Love

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I left the South many years ago as a young man, yet still on long winter nights I ask myself why. The Northern Lights are beautiful with their cold and alien glow, but I surely miss sticky summers in the Ohio River Valley, honeysuckle vine on the back fence, and the soft lilting way that Laura is pronounced Laahrah. **
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

L. A. Lawton: Four Poems

I've lived more than half my 74 years in the South, mostly by choice. I regard "y'all" as a perfectly legitimate second-person plural. I make super crabcakes and key lime pie, but I don't eat grits out of loyalty to my mama's Hoosier corn pudding. I have a photo of me with Eudora Welty, dated one of her cousins in New York in the sixties, and wish I'd ever encountered Flannery O'Connor; I knew a man who had. I've been kissed on the cheek by two Southern bishops, one for a glass of wine and one for finding him a C.S. Lewis poem with the word "longanimity" in. One of my great-great-grandmothers was a Virginian who eloped with an abolitionist lawyer and another one pioneered Midwest from Carolina, where I plan to leave my dust. **
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Gretchen A. Bateman: Four Poems

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Connecticut, raised in Maryland (yes, it's below the Mason Dixon Line!) and now living in Tennessee, I have come to realize that I am a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. I've been writing since I was a child and had my first poem published at the age of 8. I enjoy the outdoors, sports, and trying to emulate the Tennessee twang. **
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Will H. Blackwell, Jr.: Four Poems

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from Mississippi (Jackson area), and attended school in Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas—“postdocing” in Missouri. After a brief sojourn in Ohio (a mere 26 years!), teaching at Miami University (They were kind enough to offer me a job), I returned to the South—stepwise (following my illustrious, biologist wife, Martha Powell)—first to northwest central-Virginia (Harrisonburg, James Madison University), and then to, you guessed it, “Sweet Home …….” (where I am adjunct in Biological Sciences, U of AL). So, who says, “You can’t go home again”?—or, almost, anyway. I have been back in Alabama for the last 15 years (and a bit); so, if you are counting, you will realize, I ain’t no “spring-chicken!” But I have tried to stay active: in research—on microscopic, freshwater Fungi (Hey, they deserve study too!), especially forms occurring in the southeastern U.S.—and in writing (on the occasional occasion of “inspiration”). The narrative-poem style is a good vehicle to express certain experiences in my life—or flights-of-fancy pertaining thereto. I hope you enjoy what I have written. **
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Betty O’Hearn: Three Poems

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in the City of Brotherly Love. Over thirty five years ago I followed a path that took me from Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Florida and finally to rest in North Carolina. As I have lived below the Mason-Dixon more than half my life, I am part of the South. However, I must stipulate that the South will not rise again. One last thing... grits and barbecue will never touch my lips. Poetry Editor’s Note: The Dead Mule wishes to congratulate Betty O’Hearn on the occasion of her first published poems. **
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