Page 31 - July18LivingSCCLmagazine

SAVE $250
on Select Escorted European
Vacations
exclusively through mann travels!
www.mann
travels.com
704.556.8322 PARK ROAD
704.542.4242 BLAKENEY VILLAGE
704.541.0943 ARBORETUM
803.327.1156 ROCK HILL
New Bookings only. Double occupancy, 6 nights or longer. Book by July 31. No cash value. See your agent for details.
really describing herself. Her Daddy’s dime store is where she grew up, tending to the dolls and toys, giving them names and putting them into magical settings crafted in her mind’s eye and given a
life of their own through her imagination. She has carried this talent with her every step of the way. She ended her article in Garden & Gun by quoting a beautiful poem by James Still.
Inside the cover of the copy of River of Earth I found on eBay, Still had written out and signed the words of another of his poems, "Wolfpen Creek":
How it was in that place, how light hung in a bright pool Of air like water, in an eddy of cloud and sky,
I will long remember. I will long recall.
The maples blossoming wings, the oaks proud with rule, The spiders deep in silk, the squirrels fat on mast,
The fields and draws and coves where quails and peewees call. Earth loved more than any earth, stand firm, hold fast;
Trees burdened with leaf and bird, root deep, grow tall.
This poem perfectly describes Still’s strong ties to Appalachia, the same way Lee Smith’s Dimestore honors her personal connection to this same mountainous land. She has written more than a dozen books and many
Grundy, Virginia
short stories I am just beginning to explore. I invite you to do the same.
Many of Lee’s works have won literary awards, works crafted from the most valuable
material any writer has to work with - her own memories of where she came from, her family’s foibles and her
own heartbreaks – memories perfectly blended by her southern upbringing, a wellspring she has very richly tapped. L
LIVING @ SCCL, July 2018 31
on SALE!