How did West Virginia's longtime Poet Laureate plus an MFA Creative Writing professor-poet-musician end up "Running With Whiskey" around West Virginia and the world? We have questions, they have answers. Plus, of course, poems.
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SHORT/STORY: “Salena”
Salena had never had anything beautiful, certainly never anything perfect. The nuns wrapped her in perfect clean blankets. She had a little cotton shirt, perfect. They asked for the name of the father. She said, “I don’t know.” They entered ‘Unknown’ into the blank box.
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READINGS: “Montani Semper … Snapshots from an Appalachian Family Album”
Take a read on a WestVirginiaVille experiment to publish longish excerpts from worthy, well-written books with a West Virginia connection, like "Montani Semper ..."
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POETICS: 3 Poems by James Cochran
'She says Jesus / has spoken to her, told her not to drink coffee / or Redbull, that black tea is okay. / I feel jealous of such direct communication / with a higher power, then wonder if I would / stop drinking coffee if Jesus told me to ...'
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FIRST/PERSON: A few highly personal words on choice
"Three pregnancies. No choice in any of them. I have never chosen to get pregnant. I was foolish, I was sucker-punched, I was surprised. I was naïve, I was savvy. I wasn’t ready, I was ready. Such a basic right that everyone deserves. CHOICE."
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MEMOIR: Why ginseng hunters & trappers bearing bloody hides wanted in my house
One morning, I stumbled down to the kitchen when I heard a noise. There standing was an unkempt man holding bloody hides and smoking a cigarette. "Excuse me?"
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POETICS: 3 Poems by Doug Van Gundy
'These are the hours I love the best, / when the golden light of summer has climbed / to the top of the abandoned building next door / and all of the neighborhood / cats have come out from the woodpile / beneath the back porch to carouse and fight ...'
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PICTURE/SHOW: Traces of Faces in West Virginia Places
Here are shots of West Virginia folk who passed within range of my phone the last six months, when I wasn't using it to order a pizza.
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WATCH LIST: Here are some things to look at, West Virginia-wise
Check out this version of variations on "Country Roads" by the Kanawha Valley Community Band which channels Aaron Copeland; plus a video of a crazy fitness guy sledding around Charleston WV; and more.
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POETICS: 3 Poems by Marc Harshman
‘A fiddle tune bearing, rough-shod, / the memory of the village: / sunlight on stucco, / leaf-plastered paths in autumn, / spectral sheep / in moonlight and bracken, / the lilt of the market tongue, / ancient beyond telling …’
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INTRODUCTION: Is Joe Manchin the Anti-Byrd?
However complicated his life, Robert C. Byrd left a legacy of accomplishment that benefited the state and nation. His career's end game also set the example of what a senator looks like when they object when America runs off the rails. So, a key question about Joseph Manchin III: Is he the Anti-Byrd?
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STORY INDEX: Manchin-Byrd Special Edition, JUNE 8, 2022
Here is a complete guide to the interviews, articles, memoir, cartoons, and even doggerel in a special June 8, 2022, issue devoted to contrast and comparison of the Senate careers of Robert C. Byrd and Joe Manchin.
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EDITORS/NOTE: ‘The Curious, Confounding Case of Joseph Manchin III’
Our modest effort at Joe-collation and sprawling, sometimes grouchy commentary is not just too belittle the man, alhough there are roundhouse punches and cranky cartoons, but to appeal in dire days to what's left of the better angels of Joe Manchin’s nature. Unless they’ve been laid off due to inflation. His — into the Prime Minister of America.
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FIRST/PERSON: Traveling West Virginia’s backroads in the Byrdmobile
"I once worked for a man who had been an Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan — and I’m proud of it. Not because he was a Klan member more than three-quarters of a century ago, but because of what he became afterward ..."
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REFLECTIONS: Ted Boettner on “Status Quo Joe”
“I don't think Manchin thinks there is anything fundamentally wrong with business as usual and that the inequality we see today is just and acceptable. Byrd, at least partly, seemed to believe in a higher purpose beyond himself. I don't see that with Manchin, who seems mostly motivated by financial interests and political gamesmanship.”
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FIRST/PERSON: Lessons learned from the Roman to the U.S. Senate
MARK FERRELL: "A big part of his identity in Washington was being a poor, orphaned son of the Appalachian coalfields, largely self-educated, who rose through the ranks to the world's most august deliberative body and could match wits with any man in Washington of privileged background and Ivy League pedigree.
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Q&A: Author Denise Giardina on comparing Robert C. Byrd and Joe Manchin
Byrd had "a quality that is too rare in human beings: the ability to continue to learn and grow over time." With Manchin, "it’s a story as old as Greek tragedy — hubris, hubris, center of attention, power, power, money, money. It won’t turn out well for anyone, him included."
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‘HEY JOE’: Harmonically urging Joe to take climate action
In late 2021, a harmonic convergence of West Virginians came together on the statewide music video "Hey Joe," urging Joe Manchin to take decisive action on the climate crisis.
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MANCHIN/BYRD COMMENTARY: The word inside of West Virginia
“Assuming Manchin does not come home to his party on Build Back Better, voting rights, and Roe (a safe assumption at this point), he’ll have lost many more votes on his left side than he could ever hope to pick up on his right … If he doesn’t come back to his own party in really stunning fashion soon, you can expect Joe Manchin will be driving his Maserati to K street, instead of the Capitol, come 2025 ..."
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MANCHIN/BYRD COMMENTARY: The word outside of West Virginia
"When confronted by his coal industry ties, "Manchin argued the country needed 'dependability' in its sources of energy. In sinking the bill, he has frustrated efforts to definitively move beyond coal."
