Ohio University Press, 2019 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4680-5 | Paper: 978-0-8214-2381-3 Library of Congress Classification PS3619.K33A6 2019 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Planted by the Signs brings us the contemporary Appalachian poetry—cultivated in the dirt of Elliott County, Kentucky—of Misty Skaggs. With an eye for details that exquisitely balance personal and social observation to communicate volumes, she tells the stories of generations of women who have learned to navigate a harsh world with a little help from the Farmers’ Almanac and the stars. The collection is separated into three sections that reference the best times to grow and harvest. Knowing and following these guidelines—planting by the signs—could mean the difference between prosperity and tragedy in the lives of Appalachian families.
Personal, political, and passionate, Planted by the Signs also explores what it means for Skaggs to care for her great-grandmother at the end of her life. Color photos by the poet further showcase her sidelong and fierce outlook. The images and poems together deliver an intimate look into the day-to-day reality of a backwoods woman embracing barefooted radicalism in the only place she could call home.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Misty Skaggs was born and raised in the backwoods of Eastern Kentucky. She still lives in and works from a holler in Elliott County, where she tends to her poetry, her Mamaw, and her garden. Skaggs is an artist and activist as well as an author and editor, and her Appalachian roots are tightly entangled with all of her work.
REVIEWS
“Last night I was reading these poems, sitting in a chair in my city living room. As I did, clover sprouted, enfolding my toes, rug turned meadow. Gooseberries draped my shoulders. Thorns pricked my neck. The heat pump blew honeysuckle and tobacco, lilac and pine. A super moon, a woman’s face, broke through the window, bidding me to do right. It was weird. I recommend it.”—Robert Gipe, author of Weedeater: An Illustrated Novel
“(Skaggs) has a fine ear for rural storytelling tradition, and her language, tales, and recollections thrum with authenticity….Wherever Misty Skaggs’s poetry takes her, I want to be there to read it.”—The Rumpus
“If the reader can embrace even just one-fourth of the gratefulness that this speaker has for the basic pleasures in life, then she will come away from this collection with a deeper sense of contentment and reverence.”—Rosemary Royston, Journal of Appalachian Studies
Ohio University Press, 2019 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4680-5 Paper: 978-0-8214-2381-3
Planted by the Signs brings us the contemporary Appalachian poetry—cultivated in the dirt of Elliott County, Kentucky—of Misty Skaggs. With an eye for details that exquisitely balance personal and social observation to communicate volumes, she tells the stories of generations of women who have learned to navigate a harsh world with a little help from the Farmers’ Almanac and the stars. The collection is separated into three sections that reference the best times to grow and harvest. Knowing and following these guidelines—planting by the signs—could mean the difference between prosperity and tragedy in the lives of Appalachian families.
Personal, political, and passionate, Planted by the Signs also explores what it means for Skaggs to care for her great-grandmother at the end of her life. Color photos by the poet further showcase her sidelong and fierce outlook. The images and poems together deliver an intimate look into the day-to-day reality of a backwoods woman embracing barefooted radicalism in the only place she could call home.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Misty Skaggs was born and raised in the backwoods of Eastern Kentucky. She still lives in and works from a holler in Elliott County, where she tends to her poetry, her Mamaw, and her garden. Skaggs is an artist and activist as well as an author and editor, and her Appalachian roots are tightly entangled with all of her work.
REVIEWS
“Last night I was reading these poems, sitting in a chair in my city living room. As I did, clover sprouted, enfolding my toes, rug turned meadow. Gooseberries draped my shoulders. Thorns pricked my neck. The heat pump blew honeysuckle and tobacco, lilac and pine. A super moon, a woman’s face, broke through the window, bidding me to do right. It was weird. I recommend it.”—Robert Gipe, author of Weedeater: An Illustrated Novel
“(Skaggs) has a fine ear for rural storytelling tradition, and her language, tales, and recollections thrum with authenticity….Wherever Misty Skaggs’s poetry takes her, I want to be there to read it.”—The Rumpus
“If the reader can embrace even just one-fourth of the gratefulness that this speaker has for the basic pleasures in life, then she will come away from this collection with a deeper sense of contentment and reverence.”—Rosemary Royston, Journal of Appalachian Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
When the Signs Are in the Head
Wet Dew
The Home Cemetery
Churched
I’d Melt
Oatmeal Cookie Communion
Uncle Charlie Loves You
Jump Rope Jitters
The Strikeout
Regenerate
Single-Wide Self-Care
The Banty Boy
Creosote Sunrise
Distress Call
Charmed and Charming
Timber
Lawless
The Criminal
Heart and Hearth
Picture Day
Small Talk
War amid the Cabbage
Celestial Midnight Snack
Big City Surprise
When the Signs Are in the Breast
The Call of the Creek Bank
Pulling Plants
Peach Blossoms
Breaking Beans
Kentucky Heat
Charlie and Lovel
Not Much of a Mommy
Babies Having Babies
The Holy Trinity
The Scanner
Lovel Gets the Last Word
How Not to Act Right
Ode to the Bethany House
Babysitting
An Aria for Isonville
Daddy Issues
You Might Drown
Mongrels
Roadwork Ahead
Royalty
Scorpion Tattoo
Stubby
Honky-Tonk Dreams
Cat Person
Goodnight, Gramaw
Gooseberries
Mommy and Mamaw and Them
When the Signs Are in the Reins
Breathing Ghosts
In the Dark
Bitter Berries
Accidents
Bless Her Heart
Hard to Swallow
The Art of Falling Apart
The Rain
Going Shedding
Super Moon
Giveaway
Truck Stop Strangers
The Lilac Bush
Wood Paneling
Blooms and the Blood
Attempted Escape
Powerball Power Play
From around Here
Picnicking with the Dead
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC