Ohio: Kari Gunter-Seymour

Episode 12 of The Laureate Project

“Instead of the Word of the Bible, I share the Word of Poetry.”

Digging can reveal so much: treasures, foundations, memories. Sifting through the soil and bedrock of a life, a place, or a time takes us closer to the indelible sweetness of the essential, immutable layers which hold us up. Kari Gunter-Seymour brings a reverence to her digging, and, this week, leads us along her excavation of the sweetness, sorrow, and melody of the Ohio she sees and represents in this round of The Laureate Project.

[Finally, a brief programming note (which you’ll also hear at the start of this episode): I’ll be taking the next few weeks off to recharge and work on some new pieces for The Laureate Project. Seeing the response to these first 12 episodes has been a true delight, so thank you to everyone who has been listening. I’ll plan to start releasing new episodes again later this summer. Okay, now here’s Kari Gunter-Seymour.]

To No One in Particular  

I am never happy to see summer go,
earth stripped of its finest voice.
I am sitting outside in my heavy coat,
porch light off. There is a full on moon,
no ambient distractions, the sky a Zion.

I take solace in considering the age
of this valley, the way water
left its mark on Appalachia,
long before Peabody sunk a shaft,
Chevron augured the shale or ODOT
dynamited roadways through steep rock.

I grew up in a house where canned
fruit cocktail was considered a treat.
My sister and I fought over who got
to eat the fake cherries, standouts in the can,
though tasting exactly like every other
tired piece of fruit floating in the heavy syrup.

But it was store-bought, like city folks
and we were too gullible to understand
the corruption in the concept, our mother’s
home-canned harvests superior in every way.
I cringe when I think of how we shamed her.

So much here depends upon
a green corn stalk, a patched barn roof,
weather, the Lord, community.
We’ve rarely been offered a hand
that didn’t destroy.

Inside the house the lightbulb comes on
when the refrigerator door is opened.
My husband rummages a snack,
plops beside me on the porch to wolf it down,
turns, plants a kiss, leans back in his chair,
says to no one in particular,
A person could spend a lifetime
under a sky such as this.  
Stands, bows, offers his hand—sings 
(sing Buffalo Gal)

Courtesy of Kari Gunter-Seymour

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Featured Music:

"Wood and Wire" | Roy Edmund Williams | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
"Arabesque" | Trevor Kowalski | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
"Sun Bathing" | Will Harrison | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com