The title of this book of poems is a quote from the novel, Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. These poems emerge from an awareness of economic and racial oppression in the rural Appalachian South. They attempt to capture the spirt of the African American and Appalachian music that has come forth from that experience. “The sacred act of remembering in this haunted and heart-breaking book is finely harnessed to artistic precision, articulating the history of the rural South. The result cloaks anguish with beauty, suffering with grace, ignominy with a dignity whose desire to redeem is wholly human. . . . Amid the broken darkness here is the unmistakable effort of the poet to strike the match and light the way, a testament to what poetry is and can be, the angel of clarity and compassion.” – Maurice Manning. “Woodford captains a journey toward a place of great comfort, pastoral beauty, and familiarity while confronting the historical violence of both race and class. In this work, the poems lift above the page and gently question the ways in which love coupled with disgrace create the tapestry that is, at once, our families, our memories, our lives.” – Airea D. Matthews. The author, Annie Woodford, is from Bassett, Virginia. She now lives in Deep Gap, North Carolina and teaches at Wilkes Community College. This is her second poetry collection.
Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2022. 89 pages. Trade paperback.