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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Addy Robinson McCulloch: Three Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Every Thanksgiving, I make homemade chocolate pecan pie with bourbon and dark Karo syrup in my home in southeastern North Carolina.
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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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Karen Chinetti: Three Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I am a resident of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, daughter of a native North Carolinian, and graduate of Northern Kentucky University. I'm southern by choice and birth. My poetry has a little hint of southern influence, too.
Poetry Editor’s Note:
The Dead Mule wishes to congratulate Karen Chinetti on the occasion of her first published poems.
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Pris Campbell: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born and raised in a small town with one stoplight and one caution light in South Carolina. I still would do almost anything for a platter of fried okra or fried green tomatoes. I never have learned to pronounce the 'g' in words ending in 'ing' and don't intend to. My father invented to perfection the secret hush hush barbecue recipe for the Lion's Club annual all night wood-smoked cooking and basting of the pig the town feasted on the next day. And we in the south know real barbecue isn't just meat tossed on a grill with a bottle of red stuff poured on it. My great-grandfather fought in the Civil War. He owned a mule. That mule is now dead.
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Lori Blake: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born in North Carolina. My first home was a 12’ X 48’ mobile home situated on a red clay patch that had once been a watermelon field. I lived a free range childhood, spending many a day avoiding summer heat by hiding deep in the woods, catching crayfish and minnows in the creek, observing termites on old logs, or trying to push my brothers into the creek beside of the big rock we were convinced housed a snake. We roamed in a pack, which probably explains the lack of wildlife sightings during my childhood years. Imagine ten children running barefoot down a trail their feet knew by heart, knowing just when to jump to clear the old hog fence now hidden by vines. We ruled the woods, and thought we ruled the world! It was not until many years had passed that I would realize how rare that kind of freedom really is.
It was not until I moved to Europe in the early 1990’s (my husband was Army) that I realized that 1) I did indeed have a Southern accent 2) Not everyone puts slaw on a hot dog and 3) a toboggan is a sled, not a hat! Well, who knew? My hiatus from the south was brief, and I am now back to stay. While I love to travel, I will always come home to where the dirt is orange, the tea is sweet, and dead mules are mourned.
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Jean Rodenbough: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I've been published before in Dead Mule, and I'm still a Southerner. I have trouble identifying which Southern state is which on a map if the name is missing—states south of North Carolina, anyway. But I can't find France on a world map either unless it bears a title. I eat collard greens occasionally, grits at breakfast (my mother served grits at dinner), fried chicken when I get tired of other kinds of meat, but I don't care much for mince meat pie. . . .
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Michelle Hartman: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Michelle Hartman was left on a doorstep in Fort Worth lo these many years ago by a band of post-reactionary, Pagan Gypsies. After a grueling four years at the Martha Stewart School for Exceptional Females she took her rightful place beside the lucky man who won her in the county "Ho Down". She's taking a break today from polishing silver, planning a week of gourmet meals, buffing the handcuffs nicks off the headboard, and building one hundred and twenty rabbit figures from various sizes of marshmallows, to share her poetry and short thoughts on a complete life.
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Danny P. Barbare: Southern Tea
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I love sweet iced tea. Pecan pie. Have two trees in the yard. And one large Magnolia I could once jump over; it's now about 40 feet tall.
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Robert Howell: Tonight
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born and raised in Lakeland, Florida. That ought to be enough.
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Nicole Yurcaba: White December
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Nicole Yurcaba is a West Virginian bear huntin' poet, backwoods feminist, farm hand, adjunct instructor of English—basically a Jill-of-all-trades-mistress-to-none. Her family on the maternal side hails from Southern West Virginia and Kentucky. She is finely trained in the Southern art of bear huntin' and 'coon-huntin' with hound (RIP--IKE). When not writing poetry or short stories, she enjoys outfishing and outhunting her father and boyfriend in the wild mountains of eastern West Virginia. In the schools where she teaches, she is the only instructor to teach class while wearing cowgirl-cut Wranglers, Laredo cowboy boots, and a Confederate flag belt buckle.
In life, she refuses to buy a map; doing so could ruin everything.
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Jamie Poole: All of me
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born and raised in Saraland, AL. I love biscuits, cheese grits, and okra. All of my words have at least two syllables, and I've been cow tippin. I am legit. :)
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Jim Davis: In a Coffee Shop in the Plaza on Weed Street
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I spent this weekend past in Bethesda, Maryland, burying and celebrating my Grandmother – a Williams/Davis/Hoover who first was Pessou, a branch of the Louisiana swamp grass family come east upon the war of northern aggression. The small clapboard church atop the hill in which she and our family have gone to rest since the 1700s is lined with framed etchings of Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee; acorns from the chapel’s ancient oak are planted across the south, east, mid- and mountain west in her honor. Davises, many, have been schooled at Sewanee (the University of the South), and my Godfather, Bob, went to earn his MD at the U. of Tennessee. Mine come from the southern banks of the Mississippi and the horse pastures of Rattle and Snap, where southern charm, manners, and hospitality have not been lost on the branches of the Davis tree – not too an affinity for vodka-lemonade on a dusky sun porch, finding ways to beat the heat, and life with deep appreciation of our firmly planted roots.
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