Appalachian Poets

Brenda Kay Ledford and Glenda Barrett

For thought-provoking poetry from a Netwest poet, click on:Breath and Shadow and read three poems by Glenda Barrett.

She and Brenda Kay Ledford will sign their poetry chapbooks recently published by Finishing Line Press, at Phillips and Lloyd Books on the square in Hayesville, NC Saturday, October 4 at 10:00 AM.

In both Ledford's Sacred Fire and Barrett's When the Sap Rises, pure Appalachian voices rise and reach out to the reader.

On Saturday, November 1, 10:00 AM - 12:00 pm, Brenda Kay Ledford will hold a book signing for Sacred Fire at Mountain Regional Library on Main Street in Young Harrris, GA.

This poem is from Sacred Fire by Brenda Kay Ledford.

Progress

You know the old logging road,
the one behind the red house,
the one winding past Mama's garden
where morning glories climb the corn;
and you know the path reeks
with trash and broken pines weep
where the loggers butchered trees.

And a mourning dove moans
from the spring where you drew
water for tea and light oozes
through the black gum like bile
as the shadow of a crow passes
over trillium that will soon fade
away like all of us.

You know the Shewbird Mountain
quivers beneath the Thunder Moon
as the mining company
creeps up the mountain
to grind her bones into dust.