Abiding Appalachia

I usually have a lot of difficulty understanding poetry, but Abiding Appalachia wasn't too hard to read. Most of the poems were about Awiakta's life and her family. The poem Test Cow stood out to me. The author is saying how she's sad that she can't pet the cow now that it is radio active. She wonders if the cow knows about its condition. This is interesting to think about because so many factors are effected in this situation that don't even know. Another poem that stood out was Century Folks Revisited. The idea of the poem is very understandable. She's saying that one day she wants to be buried in a peaceful place where her family can visit her. I think most people want this as well. This book was most similar to Full Body Burden. They were both non-fiction and related to the same subject. I enjoyed reading Abiding Appalachia because it was a nice and short change from what we have been reading all semester.

An apology to the class - Christian Harding

I want to apologize to you, my classmate, for not fulfilling my end by not contributing to this class for the past 2 weeks. I'd like to explain why.

I am permanently diagnosed with Severe Major Depressive Disorder, which was greatly impacted 6 years ago. On December 22nd, 2007, I lost my 6 year old son, my 9 year old daughter and my wife of 15 years in the span of less than a minute. I wasn't doing very well and turned to alcohol to numb the lack of any emotion I didn't feel. I became an alcoholic.

2+ years ago I got help and have been doing very well. However, I have to be constantly on guard against depression. It is no joke.

Two weeks ago, I started a dangerous downward spiral into a depression due to something I was banging my head against. I went for treatment and am doing very well today.

I have experience in all forms of trauma, and am willing to talk to anyone who has questions or who needs help. If you want to talk about anything below, I am always available, 24/7, at (856) 628-2213. I keep myself well and growing spiritually by helping others, so don't feel you would be bothering me. I am a sponsor to others with alcoholism, I volunteer at the VA Medical Center in Coatesville, and I make myself available to anyone who needs help.

I have experience with living through and working recovery from:

• Childhood abuse
• Death of a close relative (father, brother & son)
• Alcoholism
• Depression
• Other things which I won't mention here

My story is in my notes section on facebook, and is marked public. My facebook page is at: facebook.com/theonlybluedragon

I am excited to be able to contribute to this class and it's projects, and I look forward to the rest of the semester.

Thank you,


Christian Harding
(856) 628-2213
kcjdad@ymail.com

John Zim Abiding Appalachia

To be completely honest, I have always been interested in poetry. I enjoy this style of writing and I find it easy to appreciate the art form. With that being said, I sometimes find it difficult to understand the meaning behind certain poems. Obviously some of the poems in Abiding Appalachia were easier understood than others for me, thus I am biased to the ones that I could follow. I would say of the three genres; fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, my favorite to read is fiction. I am not saying that Butler's Parable Of the Sower is the best fiction book I have took the time to read, but of the pieces we have read this year, it is my favorite. I feel that I at times have a rather animalistic nature, so reading Parable revved me up and grabbed my attention with every chapter. The fact that Lauren's gang had to encounter battles with dogs, people, and sexual tensions, amongst other things truly let my imagination guide me through the book. I would hate to see Parable of the Sower made into a film.
In regard to Abiding Appalachia, I felt that I needed to look up more about the author, Marilou Awiakta, and where she came from. In her poems, she references her indian heritage. Not only is Awiakta an Appalachian Indian, she is a Cherokee Indian as well. She wrote this book of poems after the nuclear incident in Three Mile Island after 1978. Another fact that I found interesting was the Awiakta grew up on the atomic frontier on Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Abiding Appalachia Consorti

Awiakta writes several poems and little excerpts about her life growing up near a nuclear power plant. She expresses a reverence for nature and nuclear power. I thought it was interesting how she thought about the Atom. One of the poems mentions its energy has been stored is older than time itself, which I thought was a very fitting thought for a Native American. With respect for every thing in nature, why should the atom be any different? It is something that she believes should not be broke open for its power. Some of her poems made me feel the same way as Iversons early life chapters. She writes "Alice has folks in her front yard.... Jake has some nearby his school..' (Awikata 34) The thought of children living near and playing by and around cemetery's is an interesting one. Although it is not explicitly stated that they died from radiation, after reading Full Body Burden the thought is still in mind. In addition it could be a statement about man-kinds continuing lack of respect for nature, ripping open atoms and building homes on cemetery's are equally disrespectful.

Awaits: Laura Bruce

I honestly felt bad after reading these poems, because I don't think I got what I was supposed to get from them. I feel like I got to see not Awiakta's soul, but not so much into her life. Reading the Adterword gave me so much more insight into what was happening as Awiakta grew up than any of those poems did to make me feel anything about the nuclear age. And that's what really bothered me. I want to feel when reading poetry, and I didn't feel much of anything.

Abiding Appalachia : Nicole Cassell's random thoughts

I enjoyed a hand full of poems, An Indian Walks In Me is one of them. This is going to sound corny but it reminded me of Pocahontas, yes the disney movie. When grandmother willow tells Pocahontas to listen to the wind. In the song ‘the colors of hte wind’ She says “every rock every tree has a spirit, has a name”. In the poem the writer says, “ I hear her say ‘They speak.’”. 

Being a mushy person, the love poems stuck with me. Patchwork was short but sweet, I firmly believe that love is more than saying you love someone. I feel showing someone you care with your actions makes them feel more loved than simply hearing three words.

I like the part in Marriage when the writer says “ Two peaks Alone... apart yet join at the heart”. I believe that to have a good relationship with someone you still have to be your own person, it is unhealthy to grow very attached to someone.

I really liked Mountain Chimney, Tumbled Down. 

Test Cow related to Full Body Burden completely. The cow in the story is “hot”, this term was used many times in FBB. 

I love this quote from Mother’s Advice While Bandaging My Stubbed Toe.

“So chose your path with wary eyes and do likewise with humans too. Be wary, but run on... Go barefoot and feel the joy and when pain comes, bind up your toe and go your way again.” I really like this quote because I try to live my life like this. I want to enjoy life as much as I can even when someone terrible happens, because tragedies are inevitable. 

Abiding Appalachia- Alex Parkinson

I will be the first to admit that I am terrible at reading poetry. However, with that said I can say that I enjoyed Abiding Appalachia. I thought it offered a very direct and different way for Awiakta to share her feeling about living in the place where the atomic bomb was essentially created. To be honest, before and even after reading this I had no idea what Oak Ridge was. I looked it up after I finished and all of a sudden the whole book made sense.

I saw a few similarities between Abiding Appalachia and the other books we have read in class. The first similarity that I saw was the theme of secrecy. This is a topic that is covered in both books but definitely more prominent in Full Body Burden. In Abiding Appalachia she speaks of it as a mystery and not necessarily a secret. Does that mean that when the Manhattan Project was happening essentially right next to her the residents had no idea? I understand that it is important to keep these things a secret from people because of security reasons but I also think the government has a responsibility to let its people know what is going on. When Awiakta talks about the radioactive cow I find it interesting that the cow is locked behind a fence to see what kinds of things happen to it when it's exposed to radiation. This makes no sense to me because if the cow is radioactive I don’t think having it behind a fence is going to keep the radiation away from the people. This is something we also saw in Full Body Burden. Radiation doesn’t know borders

Another thing I find interesting about Abiding Appalachia is that the town is behind fences. This is something that made me think all the way back to Parable of the Sower. Awiakta stays that they were, “sheltered in the secret and free to play as long as we stay inside the fence” (31). This reminded me of Parable of the Sower because for them the fence represented safety and a place where they could let their guard down. I do not believe the same is true for Abiding Appalachia, because they had to keep the secret inside the fence and what was going on was obviously not something that was widely talked about I believe it is a place where their guards had to be put up. I think that one false move could probably get you in a lot of trouble in Oak Ridge.