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.

Mike Giolli-Abiding Appalachia

Understanding this style of writing definitely isn't one of my strengths. For almost the entire book I was lost and couldn't get anything out of the reading. It seemed like random nonsense jumbled together. I noticed that she kept referencing to her Native American heritage. Something in common with Full Body Burdon is that she grew up near a nuclear site.
As far as which book spoke to me best, I would have to say Full Body Burdon. The fact that it actually happened makes it have more of an impact on me. The points that the author tries to get across are real problems, and the examples she uses to explain the problems actually happened. Knowing that it is real gives me more motivation to understand and apply the themes to my own life. The Parable of the Sower had good points and they were easy to understand, but knowing that the story was fiction made me less inclined to apply them to my own life. In Abiding Appalachia, I couldn't understand any point to the writing. I couldn't understand the style of writing therefore I didn't learn or apply themes to my own life. After the readings so far in this class, I've learned that nonfiction/memoirs are best for me to learn while reading.

Ryan Panko- Abiding Appalachia

I don't read poetry often, but most of the time I enjoy it. I like how, when reading poetry, different conclusions can be drawn. Depending on the reader, the poems can have incredibly different meanings. Abiding Appalachia contains many poems that seem to connect. I assume that many people found poems in this book that they like and some they don't. From what I have read, my favorites are Trail Warning and Test Cow. I feel that one can not fully enjoy poetry unless the time is taken to examine what it could mean. Poems sometimes appear to be nothing but random words and sentences, but look closer and there is something more.

Brittanee Schaible Abiding Appalachia

Brittanee Schaible

10/2/13

Abiding Appalachia

After reading all three genres, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry I finally have a sense of the most preferred personally.  Parable of the Sower has been my favorite, although I enjoyed reading the actual life of Kristen Iversen, the scientific interruptions made it difficult to get through the book.  Poetry is often confusing for me, but I have always found it delightful to the ear and interesting.  Abiding Appalachia is pleasing because it has a sense of story to it, and that is captivating when it is written in the form of poems yet it still flows.  All three books have similar themes in purpose and meaning.  Full Body Burden and Abiding Appalachia seemed to have the most connections in it, with the descriptions of childhood through adulthood and the experience of having children and teaching them about what life used to be like.  However, all three books definitely have similarities.   

Jacob Brown Appalachia

   One of the things I found interesting in Abiding Appalachia was all of the author's references to her Native American heritage. In "Tsali's Return" she references the infamous trail of tears, a forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans. In "Arrows of Laughter Arrows of Love" she mentions Awi Usdi, which is a Cherokee Indian legend about a little deer. Awi Usdi is also mentioned in "The Graphite Queen"

Abiding Appalachia: Chad Renner

When we were first assigned to read these poems I dreaded it. I had always admired poetry but yet the essence of a poem seemed to elude me and often times I was merely bemused after reading any kind of poetry. However, the poems in Abiding Appalachia did not evoke the usual sense of bewilderment from me. Awiakta adeptly constructs her poetry but simultaneously she ensures that underlying theme of every poem is explicit to the reader. Inevitably I noticed the parallels between this work and Full Body Burden. Both authors lived in the vicinity of nuclear sites and due to this both authors were obliged to comment on the inscrutable nature of government secrecy and deception. Awiakta conveys this sentiment best in her poem “The Fence” where she describes a menacing fence which seemed to sever the community’s connection to the outside world. “We’re sheltered in the secret and free to play as long as we stay inside the fence” (31). Moreover both authors possessed an abiding passion for nature and its intrinsic beauty. Indeed both authors were intensely fascinated by the relationship between humanity and nature. While Kristen Iversen primary motivation for composing her memoir was to seek some sort of personal resolution, Awiakta is compelled to write by her potent regard for Cherokee heritage and nature. These two ideas appear in numerous poems and are often juxtaposed with portentous specter of the atom. It is the contrast of these two seemingly alien forces which pervades the entirety of Awiakta’s poetry. 

Abiding Appalachia Kasey Gould

                I am not a huge fan of poetry, probably because any meaning I interpret from the poem is usually not even close to being correct. I read most of Abiding Appalachia and thought it was decent though. One poem I enjoyed in particular was “Patchwork”. Awikata says, “It takes more than saying to make love so. It takes being and doing as stitch by stitch love makes a pattern that endures” (25). I enjoyed reading this poem because I feel like I couldn’t interpret it wrong. 

Abiding Blog 1 Gabriella Maddaloni

While reading these poems, there were quotes from a few of them that reminded me of both Full Body Burden and Parable of the Sower.  In “the Removal,” one quote stood out to me the most as pertaining to Full Body Burden.  “…Better to sacrifice the few than let the many die” directly relates to the government and to how I always assumed what the government was feeling when it came to Rocky Flats (18).  When I picture Rocky Flats, I imagine it was designed to look just like any other factory.  I imagine it just as was described in “Genesis,” they build “…a chain-link fence around it all to keep the secret (37). 

            Some lines in “the Fence” strongly reminded me of Parable of the Sower.  I can almost imagine Lauren’s fear of the people on the outside breaking through her community’s wall all over again within the last stanza.  “Our parents say they’re in lands far away… but we know better.  They are here.  We feel them pressing on the fence.  We sense they want what’s hidden here.  But if they don’t get ‘it’ they won’t get us. We’re sheltered in the secret and free to play as long as we stay inside the fence (39).

            The point of the collection of poems, I found in the afterword.  Awiakta’s purpose was to unite “seemingly opposing worlds…the sacred and the scientific.  It is a spiritual union, the reconciling of opposites, to which her poetry gives full expression.”  Upon reading this, “Pine Ridge: Pilgrimage to the Prophet” comes to mean something more in my mind.  It isn’t just about John being in a museum; it explains much more.  “He’s in a museum.  By a giant atom with electrons whirling round it like tiny azure stars, there he sits – sketched leaning on his cane.  His prophecy came true.  They’ve hung pictures to show it’s so”  (52). This is a subtler way to show “where atom and mountain meet” (65).  A religious prophetic man next to a great science-based structure; it literally is where opposing worlds are united, within the same place, the same room, next to each other.  

Abiding Appalachia Jenny Pollack

At first when I was reading the poems, I wasn’t understanding how they all connected to one another. When I read about the author, Marilou Awiakta, I realized she is using her past and her experiences to bind together a bunch of poems. She has a Cherokee and Appalachian heritage that she talks about in a good amount of the poems she writes. Also, she grew up on the atomic frontier in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and uses knowledge from that to write some of her poems.

            I noticed that a few of her poems connected to Full Body Burden and Parable of the Sower. The poem called “The Fence” can be compared to Parable of the sower. It talks about being confined behind a fence because it was not safe to leave because of the enemies living on the other side. Awiakta writes, “We are in and they are out- the enemy” (pg. 30). It’s exactly how Lauren’s family lived being confined within a gated community because of the enemies living on the other side. The poem called “Test Cow” reminded me of Full Body Burden.  “But she’s radioactive now and locked behind a fence…radiation’s just not friendly” (Awiakta 33).  The cow was being used as a test animal for radiation and was hot with contamination. The animals and people living near Rocky Flats had to deal with radiation all of their lives and the contamination from Rocky Flats.