Poet, Mentor, Leader, Bobcat

Each year the Ohio University Press and its literary imprint, Swallow Press, publish around 40 titles, but it’s rare when a book’s author and subject are as close to home as they are with Kari Gunter-Seymour’s second book of poems, Alone in the House of My Heart.

Gunter-Seymour, BFA ’94, MA ’16, hails from a family rooted nine generations deep in Appalachia. Hers is the third generation to call Athens County home. Her award-winning poetry sings of local culture, family and community.

Currently in her second term as Ohio’s poet laureate, Gunter-Seymour is the author or editor of several books and has won numerous awards and fellowships. Her photographs have garnered nationwide acclaim, too.

Gunter-Seymour gives back as a community leader. She is the founder and executive director of the Women of Appalachia Project, founder and host of the Spoken & Heard series at Stuart’s Opera House, and she helms writing workshops for incarcerated people and for those in recovery.

Her generosity shows in a poem from her latest book. Its details might sound familiar to those who have called Athens home:

“The Whole Shebang Up for Debate” 

Today I gave a guy a ride, 
caught in a cloudburst
jogging down East Mill Street.
Skinny, backpacked, newspaper
a makeshift shield, unsafe
under any circumstances.
I don’t know what possessed me.

I make bad decisions, am forgetful,
cling to structure and routine
like static electricity to polyester,
a predicament of living under
the facade I always add to myself.

Said he needed to catch a GoBus,
shaking off droplets before climbing in.
He gabbed about Thanksgiving plans,
his mom’s cider basted turkey,
grandma’s pecan crusted pumpkin pie.

It was a quick masked ride.
Bless you, he said, unfolding himself
from the car. No awkward goodbyes,
no what do I owe you? Just Bless you
and a backward wave.

At the stop sign, my fingers stroked
the dampness where he sat minutes before.
Sometimes life embraces you
so unconditionally, it shifts
your body from shadow
into a full flung lotus of light.

Laura M. André is the publicity coordinator at the Ohio University Press.