In this Book
- Many-Storied House: Poems
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: The University Press of Kentucky
- Series: Kentucky Voices
Born in the small, eastern Kentucky coal-mining town of Harlan, George Ella Lyon began her career with Mountain, a chapbook of poems. She has since published many more books in multiple genres and for readers of all ages, but poetry remains at the heart of her work. Many-Storied House is her fifth collection. While teaching aspiring writers, Lyon asked her students to write a poem based on memories rooted in a house where they had lived. Working on the assignment herself, Lyon began a personal journey, writing many poems for each room. In this intimate book, she strives to answer lingering questions about herself and her family: "Here I stand, at the beginning," she writes in the opening lines of the volume, "with more questions than / answers." Collectively, the poems tell the sixty-eight-year-long story of the house, beginning with its construction by Lyon's grandfather and culminating with the poet's memories of bidding farewell to it after her mother's death. Moving, provocative, and heartfelt, Lyon's poetic excavations evoke more than just stock and stone; they explore the nature of memory and relationships, as well as the innermost architecture of love, family, and community. A poignant memoir in poems, Many-Storied House is a personal and revealing addition to George Ella Lyon's body of work.
Table of Contents
- Front Cover
- pp. 1-3
- Title Page
- p. 4
- Copyright Page
- p. 5
- Epigraph, Contents
- pp. v-x
- Provenance
- pp. 3-4
- Part 1. Downstairs
- pp. 5-6
- That Chair
- pp. 12-13
- Money Laundering
- pp. 16-17
- Collector's Item
- pp. 20-31
- August 4, 1944
- pp. 22-33
- Blood and Water
- pp. 24-35
- Junk Drawer
- pp. 27-38
- Over Coffee
- pp. 29-40
- Daddy's Last Christmas
- pp. 30-41
- Kitchen Table
- pp. 31-42
- What Won't Burn
- pp. 32-43
- Bucket Brigade
- pp. 33-34
- Part 2. Flood
- pp. 39-40
- It Got Us This Time
- pp. 41-42
- Worst Flood in Harlan County History
- pp. 44-45
- Part 3. Upstairs
- pp. 49-50
- On Those Shelves
- pp. 52-63
- Interior Design
- pp. 53-54
- Smithereens
- pp. 56-57
- Memory Book
- pp. 58-59
- It Was a Year
- pp. 60-71
- [Untitled]
- pp. 63-74
- By the Laundry Hamper
- pp. 64-65
- Linen Closet
- pp. 66-77
- Doll Mother
- pp. 69-80
- Night of the Mysteries
- pp. 70-72
- Off Limits
- pp. 73-84
- How It Smelled
- pp. 74-85
- Arthritis, 1952
- pp. 77-88
- The Photo of Granny Buby
- pp. 78-79
- November 21, 1963
- pp. 80-91
- With a Song in His Heart
- pp. 82-83
- Part 4. Yard
- pp. 91-92
- Westward Ho
- pp. 95-106
- Part 5. All of It
- pp. 97-98
- Postgraduate Work
- pp. 99-110
- It Doesn't Matter
- pp. 100-111
- On Her Side
- pp. 103-104
- Final Play
- pp. 105-116
- Every Cupboard Bare, Every Head Bowed
- pp. 107-108
- Thanksgiving Night
- pp. 109-120
- The Day After
- pp. 110-111
- I Can't Believe
- pp. 112-113
- Dedication
- pp. 115-116
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 117-118
- Index of First Lines
- pp. 119-121
- Series page
- pp. 133-135