Woodsmoke
By Wayne Caldwell
Woodsmoke is a poetry collection that renders the experience of living out life in a single, exquisite place—“in the shadow of the mountain my father said was mother to us all”—Mount Pisgah in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Wayne Caldwell, author of the novel Cataloochee, brings us the waning days of Posey Green, who cuts his own firewood, looks after himself, and tends to the land where his wife Birdie and her people are buried. Posey’s colloquial narrative poetry is presented as found verse, conjured from Posey’s internal musings—and these poems alternate with those of a new neighbor, a sympathetic female poet who observes Posey and his surroundings and creates a more formal poetic record of his days.
"The beauty of Woodsmoke is that it gives us the pleasures of both poetry and prose as it unveils not only the story of one man’s life, but the story of a whole culture. I’ve long admired Wayne Caldwell’s novels, and I’m now an admirer of his poetry. Woodsmoke is an absolute delight." —ۥRon Rash, In the Valley and Serena
"Sit in a quiet place, preferably in front of a woodfire, take deep breaths, and listen to Posey Green. His voice is a beautiful elegy for a southern Appalachian language and mindset almost gone." —ۥCharles Frazier, Varina and Cold Mountain
"A beautiful book that reminded me of things about our culture that are so often overlooked. Woodsmoke and Posey are rooted in the core of the Appalachian spirit: a commitment to hard work, the land, and neighborliness. Like splitting and stacking wood, this collection of poems honors the complex intricacies of a life so many might refer to as simple or easy." —Savannah Sipple, WWJD and Other Poems
Paperback- ISBN: 9781949467390
Wayne Caldwell is the author of the novels Cataloochee (2007) and Requiem by Fire (2010). He has won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association, and the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Woodsmoke is his first collection of poetry. He lives with his wife, Mary, just west of Asheville, on land that has been in her family since 1831. In his spare time, he works up firewood.
