Friday, April 19, 2024,10:45 a.m.
2024 Multicultural Women's Development Conference
Friday, April 19, 2024,10:45 a.m.
2024 Multicultural Women's Development Conference
Runyon will read from her recent book of poems, Where Is Our Prague Spring?, at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Cullowhee, NC on Sunday, September 24. The heart of this book, written during Black Lives Matter events, puts forward a history of progressivism in Appalachia. It challenges the common stereotype of the region as backwards and racist and presents an alternative view of both past and present without whitewashing either. The reading will be followed by a discussion of “Love, Race, and Hate in Appalachia.” Scroll all the way down for a sample poem.
Ordering Information
at the Cherokee-Scottish Festival in Franklin, North Carolina
not far from the “Qualla Boundary,” which is still home
to the Cherokee who escaped
the Trail of Tears
my cousin and I stand
at the table of Cherokee artisans
viewing the exquisite two-color baskets
the sleek carved panthers and bears
the roughly chiseled stone
from the crowd at the table an elderly white gentleman
in a crisp red tartan kilt with all the trimmings
turns out of nowhere to say to my cousin and me:
in Sylva, they are trying to tear down
the Confederate monument, of all things
and he proceeds to say this bad thing about the Blacks
and that bad thing about the Blacks –
they should tear it down!
I interrupt, throwing caution to the winds
who does he think we are, my cousin and me – tourists?
the racists here love to talk
about being in these mountains eight generations –
that’s as long as any white man could be
our own family has been here for eight generations
we marched to tear down the statue in Sylva, for lord’s sake –
we weren’t raised to be racist
my ancestor, among the first Europeans in Franklin
deeded land to a Cherokee chief
to save him and his family
from the Trail of Tears
but we are not innocent –
this same ancestor owned slaves
has promotion of Scottish heritage
become codeword for white supremacy?
my cousin and I go and listen to the bagpipes
before leaving the festival
I love the bagpipes
they remind me of my Scottish ancestry, McIntosh
the bagpipe band played traditional tunes
including “Amazing Grace”
do those tartan-clad players know
that song was written by a former slave ship captain
who became an abolitionist?
the week after the festival the Franklin newspaper
featured a centerfold spread of the “Cherokee/Scottish” event
full color photos of all the tartans and kilts
not one photo of a Cherokee artisan
****
later I go to get my car inspected
at an auto repair shop I’d heard about
owned by a family of old-time musicians –
good people, I’m told
I’m curious – are these the kind of people
I grew up knowing here – heart-solid
kind, honest-as-the-day-is-long
mountain folk?
the young brothers working there are all pale-skinned
with ginger hair and reddish beards
they are incredibly nice, fast and cheap
when I enter the gas station cafè to pay
there is no sign of music or old-time musicians
just a poster for a Christian singer
who will appear soon in Franklin
the patrons, all older white men
look suspiciously at me in my pink mask
“not from around here”
they must be thinking
Runyon will be giving a poetry reading at the 4M Festival (Mountain Makers Mushroom & Music) over Labor Day weekend in Sylva, NC:
Ordering Information
men weaving
traditionally it was the women who wove
in the mountain hollers
and the men who built the looms
out of rough-hewn wood
then the railroads that had been built for the mines
to haul off the feldspar, kaolin and mica
also brought in dry goods for clothing
so the looms were put away
and stayed away, until Lucy Morgan
went to Berea College in 1924 to learn to weave
and came back to Penland to teach the women there –
where only Aunt Susan Phillips, age 95
still even knew how to weave, but didn’t –
but had a big old rough-timbered loom
way up high in the loft of her cabin
****
when Penland School was born in 1929
my great-aunt Lucy invited Edward F. Worst –
an expert on handweaving from Chicago –
to the new Penland School to teach
and he came, and came back
summer after summer
on his own dime
and then it was Mr. Rupert Peters
who came from the Kansas City Public Schools
to take the helm of the Lily Loom House in the 1930s
he was still there when I was a child in the 50s
though elderly, and no longer taught
but came to The Pines for all his meals
always chucking me under the chin, saying
“you’ve got a little soft spot there, haven’t you?”
Mr. Peters – tall, bespectacled, white-haired –
his picture high on the wall above the mantle in the weaving room
where we wove late at night, while keeping an eye out for bats
swooping down from the rafters
and later it was Colonel John Fishback, round and bald –
a cranky old army colonel who had been wounded in the war
and didn’t want to do anything until someone said
bring him to Penland, he can learn to weave
and he did
and it was he who taught my cousin and me
all those men weaving, but fifty years later
it was under the tutelage of women once again
that my own tall son learned to weave
bright star of the weaving studio that season
with his youth, his bright red hair
Louise will be giving a poetry reading at St. John's Episcopal Church at Cartoogechaye, just west of Franklin, NC on Wednesday July 19 at 6 p.m. The reading will pay homage to her great-uncle A. Rufus Morgan, an Episcopal priest who rebuilt the church in the 1940s and was an environmentalist and early maintainer of the Appalachian Trail; to her cousin Frances Cargill, a mainstay of Nantahala Weavers and an active dulcimer player in this area; and to other visionary family and friends, many of whom are buried in this church's cemetery. Scroll down for a sample poem; scroll further down to see Sally Kesler ferns ~ Sally will also be honored in this reading. Poetry books will be available for purchase for cash or check only.
my cousin Frances
sharp of mind till the very end
keen of eyesight, possessed of hearing
only slow of speech, and eating
not slow of thinking, or of caring
Frances, the mountain girl
who left her mountains for 50 years or so
for Washington, D.C., for New England, for South Carolina
who finally made it back to the 100-year-old cabin
to play the dulcimer and the bowed psaltry
and to weave
who, with Sally, for 20 years was a mainstay
at the Nonah Weavers’ cabin
who wove the complex traditional overshot patterns
with ease
who wove fabric for an elegant suit
for her daughter
who wove scarves and curtains and baby blankets
and a bishop’s stole in red and white
Frances wove everything –
hand towels and dish towels, wash cloths and bath mats
inserts for Christmas cards and bookmarks – my treasures
Frances wove her own shroud
which covered the box meant to contain her ashes
which she kept for years
till she was ready
Frances, who, with her daughter and Sally
went “galaxing” every late fall,
gathered the large round leathery leaves,
prized by florists, into green bouquets
and mailed them to my mother and me every Christmas
sending the scent of the mountains to our homes
the green bouquets which would last till spring
Frances, who gave me sanctuary
the many times I came to see my aunt
(first cousin to Frances)
at the nursing home nearby
Frances, who sang “Amazing Grace”
in the Cherokee language at my aunt’s memorial service
at the tiny mountain church in the woods
where I will one day be buried
Runyon will read poems honoring significant mother figures in her life at the Jackson County, NC Senior Center on May 12. Her reading will follow the Mother's Day Luncheon at the Senior Center. For a sample poem, see below.
Louise Morgan Runyon Poetry Reading
Jackson County, NC Senior Center, Friday, May 12, 11:45 a.m.
100 County Services Park, Sylva, NC 28779
Check out Runyon's new book if you haven't already:
Ordering Information
the purple and the
gold
dear ma,
two months
ago today I moved here, I left Atlanta and came back to these
mountains I have always loved. today I walked down to the river the back
way, for the first time by myself. I did
fine. it was a warm, sunny afternoon,
and the fall flowers were in their full glory.
walls of coreopsis-like yellow
gigantic Joe-Pye weed, gray-pink
spiky magenta tufted things, Kirsten
says it’s ironweed
whole banks of orange jewel weed, petite
tiny lavender asters, slightly bigger
white ones
no blue chicory, no purple or white
ageratum
a handful of Queen Anne’s lace, mostly gone now
– your favorite flower – I thought of you –
the glittering river below
the dark distant peaks beyond
the goldenrod starting
the surprise of fresh bright thistles,
light purple –
first ones I’ve seen this season,
reminded me
of Penland
two single black-eyed Susans in the
meadow by the river
as a child I thought it was my cousin
Susan’s
personal flower
the rush of the river around the island
where Brian always wanted to camp
the near green hill across the river
rising straight up
and there in two low areas, on the way
back –
near the spring and above the pond –
the scarlet gift
of
lobelia
dear ma
To hear Louise Runyon read some of her new work, listen to this podcast:
https://podopshost.com/63a9b01bb9aed/2328
This podcast is an initiative of the Grief Walking project, and includes a brief interview with Louise on transcending grief.