The Farm Reece
remembered
"I know a
valley green with corn
Where Nottley's waters roil and run
From the deep
hills where first at morn
It takes the
color of the sun."
So read the
first four lines of Union County Byron Herbert Reece's poem entitled, "I Know a Valley Green with
Corn."
In the
summertime he 'laid by' his crop of corn along Wolf Creek in Choestoe. As he toiled by day, the rhythm of the
cultivator plowing through the corn rows produced the lyrical cadences
of poems which he set down by pen at night when most farmers in his
valley were resting.
But "I know a
valley green with corn" came as a remembrance, with nostalgia and
homesickness. The poet was (as he indicates) "three thousand miles
away" from his beloved valley "green with corn" when he penned these
lines.
He left his
home beside US Highway 129 near Vogel State
Park on June 14, 1950. It
took him almost as long to get to the Atlanta
airport and board a plane as the flight across country to the University of California at Los
Angeles. There he taught classes, met
with literary groups, and faced criticism that he was a poseur. "Many
people in the artificial circles where he read his poetry, after
hearing one of his exquisitely executed lyrics, could not accept the
authenticity of the man standing before them. Surely he must be
cultivating the appearance of an unpolished mountain farmer who was
trying to gain notoriety and publicity by posing as a 'primitive.'" (in Raymond A. Cook, Mountain Singer. Atlanta,
Cherokee Publishers, 1980, page 70).
He wrote a
friend that he felt he was "Exhibit A" from "the primitive mountains of
Georgia."
The academicians could not accept that he wrote with such perception
and lyricism without having earned several degrees from prestigious
colleges. It was from his apartment on Veteran
Avenue in Los
Angeles that he thought about the Wolf Creek farm
and longed to be there, where "Nottley's
waters roil and run."
Now the farm
which was once "green with corn" is being turned into the Byron Herbert
Reece Memorial and Appalachian Cultural Center. As progress is made on
the project undertaken by the four-year old Byron Herbert Reece
Society, work is moving forward to save the land, the barns, and
Reece's dwelling house which will become the Visitor's Center of the
complex.
Interactive
programs for children will help them understand how an early twentieth
century mountain farm operated. Educational displays will show the life
and times of Byron Herbert Reece. When the plaza is built, some of his
poems will be engraved at each of the cardinal points. An amphitheater
is on the drawing board. It will be at the north end of the property at
the bend of Wolf Creek. It
will be available for outdoor dramas, poetry readings and programs.
Union County had
a genius among us as Reece farmed the land and spent what few hours he
had from hard labor writing lyrical poems, ballads, sonnets and novels.
Kenneth Rockwell writing in the Dallas Daily Times in 1950
stated: "There is no doubt that Byron Herbert Reece is one of the
important younger writers in America." (Cook, p. 72). In
the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution of July 16, 1950, a
reviewer wrote: "Anything that Byron Herbert Reece, Georgia's
hill country bard, turns his hand to is done with vigor and
thoroughness. This is true whether he is plowing a furrow on his farm
in the Choestoe district or writing a ballad or a novel." (Cook, p. 72).
In this ninetieth year since Poet Reece's birth, the Society named for him is
working hard to build the Cultural Center, to create lesson plans and make
persons available for the "Reece in the Schools" project, to record oral
histories from those who knew Reece personally during his life; and to have
programs that will give insight and understanding about the "poet genius of the
mountains." We
in the Society would like to have readers of this column as members.
Your membership can make a difference as we work together to make known
the rich legacy of this mountain poet.
Young Harris College and
the Georgia Center for
the Book/Georgia Humanities Council are the presenting sponsors joining
many other supporters to honor Reece this fall at 2007 Georgia Literary
Festival. Featured writers will be Philip Lee Williams of Athens,
Helen Lewis of Morganton, and Bettie Sellers of Young Harris. Cathy
Cox, former Georgia Secretary of State and President of Young Harris,
will be the keynote speaker. Many other Georgia
writers with ties to the mountains will be Honored Participants. The
Festival will be held in Blue
Ridge September 28-30. For more
information, see http://www.georgialiteraryfestival.org.
�2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 19, 2007 in The Union
Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]