Literary Patriarch for Gurney Norman
- Literary Patriarch for Gurney Norman
Got my mamma's lipsbut I dot my eyes like himor so I'm told.She taught me how to stand.He taught me how to walkinto a classroomup to a podiumand pretendit was just the front porcha collection of tree stumpsa circle of kin.
Everything I knowabout the Ohio River ValleyAppalachian Literatureand post-modern community activismI learned while ridingshotguninto the mountainsmarveling at his Mecca
Onceafter a short hikefrom Hindman to Hazard to Hazel Greenhe pushed his glasses back on his noseheld up two chalk board handsand said"what I see happening is this?"then proceeded to map out [End Page 142] concentric typographical circleswith grass rootsthat ignoredcontinental and racial dividesand I believedand have watched it allunfold and spiral around mejust like he said it would
Some seea silver sagea bespectacled Daniel Boonewith his fountain pen cockedI seemy literary father. [End Page 143]
Frank X Walker is a multidisciplinary artist and is a co-founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. His poetry collections are Affrilachia, Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, Black Box, When Winter Come: The Ascension of York, Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride, Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, About Flight, and The Affrilachian Sonnets.
