Category: Poetry Publisher: Mississippi Poetry Society, Inc.
ISBN-10: 9780984048328
Type: Fiction
Pages: 70
Copyright: April 8, 2014
A collection of poems by Mississippi Poetry Society's 2014 Poet of the Year.
Mississippi Poetry Society’s 2014 Poet of the Year, Wynne Huddleston, presents her first book of poems
From the Depths of Red Bluff will take you across the dirt road where muscadines grow, through childhood memories of grandparents and sweet, southern summers, then into a flood of loss and regret where the devil always gets his due. You’ll take your grandson’s tiny hand to cross a bridge of forgiveness and find the hope of spring in your granddaughter’s innocent face. You’ll sing the blues, get swept away by the Mississippi River into a vein that cuts deep into the heart of beautiful Red Bluff where all the blue, red, purple and golden moments magically come together in a rainbow of grace. Composed of free verse, haiku, rhymes and forms, this collection does more than scrape the surface; it's bound to leave its mark upon your heart.
Excerpt
SAME STARS, DIFFERENT HOUSES
We planned to run away, but never did. I
lived as a hermit in a new brick house full
of doors, sisters that shut me out, a nagging
mom who did everything, and a dad
who was miles away at work, or at home
booming, Don’t do this! or Why did you do
that? You, my friend, subsisted in a house
of ill repair, with a present, but miserly father
who favored sons over daughter. Your mom,
imposing Cinderella chores, had been taken
by your father’s uniform and promises
of seeing the world. Now a bitter,
middle-aged woman, who’d yet to cross
the ocean, was stuck in an old house with no
plumbing. But it was lovely once. It hugged us
with its wrap-around porch, it intrigued us
with its hole-in-the-roof skylight
above your bed. Whenever I’d spend the night
we’d lie there looking through it and wish
for a man who would promise
those same stars to us.
Professional Reviews
Spring Cleaning for the Spirit
Wynne Huddleston's fulsome direct voice is spring cleaning for the spirit. These poems take all life has to offer in their gentle, energetic stride.
—Angela Ball, Moorman Distinguished Professor of English, Center for Writers, University of Southern Mississippi
Blues & Muscadines, Faith & Music
FROM THE DEPTHS OF RED BLUFF celebrates the magic of Mississippi, with blues and muscadines, faith and music. These poems warm and cool with the simple beauty of a wrap-around porch, where Wynne Huddleston sings of pain and acceptance and invites us "to go inside/ and see."
—Irene Latham, The Sky Between Us
A Beautiful Testament
A beautiful testament to the value and importance of the Mississippi Poetry Society!
—Paula J. Lambert, author of The Sudden Seduction of Gravity
Each person is but a grain of sand resting beside the sea. This thought sets the tone for Jill Eisnaugle’s latest poetry collection, Beside Still Waters.
