Affrilachia: Poems

By Frank X Walker

A milestone book of poetry at the intersection of Appalachian and African American literature.

In this pathbreaking debut collection, poet Frank X Walker tells the story of growing up young, Black, artistic, and male in one of America’s most misunderstood geographical regions. As a proud Kentucky native, Walker created the word “Affrilachia” to render visible the unique intersectional experience of African Americans living in the rural and Appalachian South.

Since its publication in 2000, Affrilachia has seen wide classroom use, and is recognized as one of the foundational works of the Affrilachian Poets, a community of writers offering new ways to think about diversity in the Appalachian region and beyond.

Published in 2000 by Old Cove Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781735224251

Frank X Walker

FRANK W WALKER is the 2013-2014 poet laureate of Kentucky. He is an associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky and the editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. A Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry recipient, he is the author of five collections of poetry, including Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, which won the Lillian Smith Book Award, and Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride.

Book preview

AFFRILACHIA

AFFRILACHIA

poems by

FRANK X WALKER

OLD COVE PRESS

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY 2000

Published by

OLD COVE PRESS

oldcove.com

Composed in Bembo

Prepress services by Beau Graphics, Lexington

Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc., Dexter, MI

Printed on 60# Natures Book Natural

Acknowledgments

For important assistance in making this book: Aaron Anderson, Sharon Bailey, Teresa Burgett, Jean Donohue, Jonathan Greene, Myra Hughes, Fred Johnson, Larry Treadway, Minh Truong, Duncan Veach, and Mike Zender.

Copyright © 2000 by Frank X Walker.

All rights reserved.

ISBN 0-9675424-0-5

Printed in the U.S.A.

Publisher's Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walker, Frank X

Affrilachia / poems by Frank X Walker.

Lexington, KY: Old Cove Press, 2000.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-9675425-0-5

1. Afro-Americans–Kentucky–Poetry. I. Title

FIRST EDITION

Ninth Printing

for Faith A. Smith and Frank Walker, Sr.

Contents

CLIFTON I

WISHBONE

STATUES OF LIBERTY

MATRIARCH

CEASE FIRE

ROCK STAR

CROOKED AFRO

HUMMINGBIRD

DEATH BY BASKETBALL

NEAPOLITAN

CP TIME

LIL’ KINGS

SWEET B

VIOLINS OR VIOLEN . . . CE

TAKING THE STARES

MILLION MAN MARCH

THE HARVEST

DOGON

HEALER

FIREPROOF

AMAZIN’ GRACE

A WAKE

RED-HANDED

POETRY MOMENTS

DIAMOND SEED

IN HELL EXHALE

MERMAID

STOP LOOKING AND LISTEN

MY BOY D’

NIKKI

ED WORKS

JÍBAROS

SARA YEVO

INDIANA

AFFRILACHIA

BREAKFAST IN HAZARD

KENTUCKE

CLIFTON II

Affrilachia

Clifton I

We stood there

me, him, regret

crowding the edge of the road

same nose

same hands

same nervous smile

casualties

in a civil rights era

divorce war

stood in the mud

in the sane

pretending to be father and son

shadow and tree

finger and thumb

again

avoiding each other’s eyes

biting bottom lips

hoping we left our pain

in the city

staring at the edge of his unlit cigarette

I search for answers

I wait for clarity

and or flames

hidden among the lessons

in the stories

he pulls from his pockets

like peppermint candy

covered with lint

we wander through

the family resting place

at the rear of the church

on a crooked hill

just beyond the old outhouse, a two-seater

searching for his grandmother’s

marker

among the Trumbos

Terrances

Rowes

and rows of soldiers

nodding at a gravel road

made more visible

through naked winter trees

and