The Medicine Woods: Poems

By Danita Dodson

The Medicine Woods is a graceful and soul-stirring meditation on how our planet's future lies in the ability to embrace the oneness of life and practice nonviolence toward each other, the trees, the seas, and all beings. In this second collection of awe-inspiring poetry, Danita Dodson uplifts the ecological stewardship that obliges us to seek healing in its many forms--to walk in the woods, to cure waters, to return the soil to its original state of health, to mend broken hearts and minds, to give justice to the oppressed. With perceptive musicality and stunning natural imagery, the poet offers the spirit of what her grandmother sought when she ventured into the East Tennessee woods to find medicinal plants to heal her family--poems that carry an imaginative ethnobotanical essence as they distill curative words in this time of climate change and escalating violence. Uniting the natural and the divine and connecting the hills of Appalachia with the planetary landscape, Dodson's mystical verses exemplify the wisdom of a poet with a love of place, illuminating the deep connection to the land that underlies the desire to love it, to protect it, and to listen to its stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Oct 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666754179

Danita Dodson

Danita Dodson is a poet, educator, and literary scholar. The Medicine Woods (2022) is her second book of poetry. Her debut collection, Trailing the Azimuth, was published in 2021. She has published articles in various literary journals, including seminal scholarship on The Handmaid's Tale. Dodson is also the co-editor of the pedagogical volume Teachers Teaching Nonviolence (2020). She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. Combining a love of scholarship and diverse experiences, Dodson has been a Fulbright-Hays fellow in Turkey, a professor in Nicaragua, an amateur archaeologist in the Southwest, and a Spanish teacher in Appalachia. A native of East Tennessee, she lives in the small town of Sneedville, where she hikes and explores local history connected to the wilderness. Dodson teaches English and Humanities as an adjunct instructor at Walters State Community College.

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