I scream red . . . for a secret passage to air: Willow Grove Mine cries out in a poem in the aftermath of a gaseous explosion that claimed the lives of 72 coal miners, devastating a community in Southeastern Ohio for decades. Jonathan Graham includes this poem in his 140-page hybrid lyric memoir of Appalachia.
Inspired by a dream in which his deceased father tunnels his way to him from the tomb of Willow Grove, the author recounts being raised in an ethnic enclave of immigrant Slovak coal miners, several of whom, including two uncles, lost their lives in the mining catastrophe. Elegiac and focused, the compilation promises poetry and short prose to chronicle the author’s family and a handful of characters living nearby in the mid-20th Century.
After the catastrophe, Willow Grove had a stranglehold on the region, elucidated by the essence-seeking nature of Graham’s lyric writing. Like violin music wafting from an Appalachian mineshaft on a hillside, verse draws the ear and mind of the reader into the imagination of the book.
As a whole, the collection laments a time, a region, a culture of hard-working, land-loving Appalachians who celebrate and grieve together, who struggle against the odds to succeed, overcoming poverty and tragedy to create better lives for themselves. Too, the stories lament a land ravaged by mining, and the land’s dream of healing.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:
“The Sky Was Always Underground is a lyric memoir of a life lived in the aftermath of the second most deadly mine explosion in Ohio history. We use statistics to distance ourselves for such events, but statistics say nothing about shattered lives, keening wives, and survival guilt. Jonathan Graham picks up the pieces of a lost world. Some seem like shards of stained glass from a bombed cathedral, while others more like broken beer bottles, but he celebrates them all, saints and sinners alike, in the haunted foothills of Appalachia.”—R.C. Wilson, Editor “Edith Chase Poetry” and Last Exit Press. Author of A Street Guide to Gary, Indiana: A Post-Industrial Ghost Story (1980, Shelley’s Press, Kent, Ohio).
“This collection moves me deeply with its tender intimacy amid revelations of an important era of United States history—20th Century coal mining in Appalachia—and the tentative grace of an immigrant community. The struggle of immigrants to survive hardship and profound loss is preserved here in a hybrid memoir that is compelling to read from beginning to end. I am glad that Jonathan did eventually leave the dying town where he grew up, a town of poisoned waters, and yet kept his love and respect for his family who built it. Also—what a group of fascinating characters!”—Carol D Guerrero-Murphy, Ph.D., author of Tablewalking at Nighthawk, Chained Dog Dreams, Bright Path Dark River.
“Jonathan Graham has the uncanny ability to transport the reader directly into his remembrances of Appalachia with both his poetry and his prose. His easy-going lyrical style introduces us intimately to his family, the coal mines, and life in general from this unique part of the country. Leaning heavily on his love of nature, he gently captures the vivid sounds, sights and feelings that in turn, capture the reader’s heart. Here you can enjoy a feast of beautiful words gleaned from beautiful memories.”—Lee Elliott, journalist and teacher. Her work can be found in Reader’s Digest, Parents, and Grit, among many others.
“From the land of James Wright comes another voice infinitely versed in the coal mine of language and its char of family legacy caught in the shafts and slag heaps of the mine. Weighted beneath the ash of the Willow Grove Mine explosion in 1940, Poet/Doctor Jonathan Graham’s lyric memoir of an Ohioan childhood is a beautiful memoriam to the dead and to the living, to the (butterfly) wing dust that dries on the finger, and to what most certainly here is the flower of a “coal child” opening its “bounty” of a faraway world.”—Kathryn Winograd, Ph.D. Author of Slow Arrow: Unearthing the Frail Children, and This Visible Speaking: Catching Light Through the Camera’s Eye.
“Throughout The Sky Was Always Underground, Jon Graham’s fresh voice makes vivid the landscape of his youth: the Czechoslovakian immigrant enclave of Midway, just 40 houses, all the fathers coal miners. For nearly 150 pages of rich lyricism and immersive prose, Graham’s deep affection for his people and this place emanates from the page. He invites readers to become rooted deeply, too, to share communion wine at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church; to fish for mudsuckers from train trestles above Big Wheeling Creek; and, most poignantly, to grieve all the loss inflicted by the Willow Grove Mine explosion.”—Ted Lyons, Ph.D. Kent State University English/Creative Writing Professor.
“Jon Graham, hummingbird, has retrieved the nectar. The grief of Willow Grove Mine and the love of Vera Troyanovich, the sweet delights of youth holing up in the train tunnel and skating the deadly ice, the destruction of land and water and men. The decrepit survivors. The artist recreates his noble origins, out of ditches and red dog gravel.”—James De Monte, Ph.D. Author of Where Are Your People From? and Brotherhood.
by Jonathan Graham
Page Count: 154
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: January 2, 2024
Imprint: Catamount Press
Genre: Literary / Short Stories
POETRY / Subjects and Themes / Death, Grief, Loss
POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Animals & Nature
FICTION / Small Town & Rural
You might also like ...
-
$19.95In 1982 Soviet-controlled Poland—a time and pla...In 1982 Soviet-controlled Poland—a time and place of suspicion and mistrust—when geopolitical forces and violent men descend upon her little town of Zygmuntowo, Emilia must decide if she’s willing ...
-
$19.95- The Newly Revealed T206 Baseball Card Collect...- The Newly Revealed T206 Baseball Card Collection of Thomas Edison's Youngest Son Thomas Edison was a long-time baseball fan. In his younger years, he once proclaimed, he could have named the play...
-
$19.95In offering a second volume of Pennsylvania mou...In offering a second volume of Pennsylvania mountain legends and folktales to the reading public, the author does so with a note of appreciation to all who found the first volume of legends of inte...
-
$36.95by John Cressler Much of modern Spain was under...by John Cressler Much of modern Spain was under Muslim control for nearly 800 years (from 711 to 1492 C.E.). Medieval Islamic Spain was deeply influential in world events, for a multitude of reason...
-
$9.99A Story of the Ohio Country The Young Frontiers...A Story of the Ohio Country The Young Frontiersman Book 2 War-seasoned young Barnabas Locke arrives at Harris’s Ferry, where he does business with John Harris II, as a trader of goods going into th...
-
$34.95This is the riveting, brutally honest story of ...This is the riveting, brutally honest story of a man’s struggle to make something of himself in the theater. Coming from meager circumstances in the Ozark Mountains, he fights his way up the shaky ...
-
$27.951838 St. Petersburg, Russia’s Window to the Wes...1838 St. Petersburg, Russia’s Window to the West. Thirteen-year-old tomboy Rian Krieger has run away to Russia to help her uncle and cousin build a railroad for Tsar Nicholas I. But there’s a probl...
-
$19.95Prose Edda Book 3 An Earl with godly ambitions....Prose Edda Book 3 An Earl with godly ambitions. A Viking warrior. A scheme, decades in the making. The heart of the Ironwood, a mysterious forest, has been pillaged and replaced with a mine. Hrothg...
-
$22.95On the night of March 17, 1934, in a small town...On the night of March 17, 1934, in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, a man crept to a window and shot a woman through her heart. Her name was Susan Mummey, but she was better known as the Witch o...
-
$9.99A Story of the Revolutionary War The Young Fron...A Story of the Revolutionary War The Young Frontiersman Book 1 It is 1777, early in the Revolutionary War, when fleet young Barnabas Locke runs against an hourglass to become a courier in Captain W...
-
$34.95On December 1st, 1784, along a cold and wintry ...On December 1st, 1784, along a cold and wintry Fourth Street in Philadelphia, Major William Trent sputtered his last breath surrounded by friends and family and soon became forgotten in history. Th...
-
$9.99The Northern Appalachia Review is an annual pub...The Northern Appalachia Review is an annual publication making a place for the under-recognized literature of its region. The editors identify northern Appalachia as the Appalachia counties of Ohio...
-
$16.95The Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania, or PA...The Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania, or PAPA, for short, was spear-headed by the late Marjorie Bicknell and incorporated on June 20, 2008. Shortly after incorporation, the group began to hold ...
-
$19.95The Life and Times of the Author of Ben Hur -- ...The Life and Times of the Author of Ben Hur -- An analytical and deeply rich historical biography of a great American author who is little known or remembered today. Lew Wallace, a fascinating and...
-
$19.95of the New York Yankees Mike Burke arguably led...of the New York Yankees Mike Burke arguably led one of the most interesting lives in twentieth century America. It seems that it was his destiny to have a rendezvous with history at every turn in ...
-
$16.95A Memoir Beyond Barron, the second volume of a ...A Memoir Beyond Barron, the second volume of a memoir initiated by the publication of Back to Barron (in 2008), encompasses captivating humor and telling detail to narrate the story of author Van T...
-
$24.95The Islands of Chincoteague and Assateague are ...The Islands of Chincoteague and Assateague are travel destinations like no other. NEW EDITION FOR 2024 Many visit these islands on Virginia’s Eastern Shore to see the wild ponies made famous by th...
-
$24.95The Plot to Destroy America ~~~ America’s leade...The Plot to Destroy America ~~~ America’s leaders and pundits have long warned that China is the West’s greatest threat to its democratic and economic survival. This is the central theme upon which...
-
$22.95A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark, a former ...A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark, a former US Navy officer, is head of private maritime security company Highland Maritime Defense and is in the cross-hairs in Claude Berube’s second geopolitic...
-
$22.95A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark was a pari...A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark was a pariah, a former naval officer whose career came to an unceremonious end after a court-martial resulted in a dishonorable discharge. As head of a private ...
-
$19.95The authors have combed the Mid-Atlantic region...The authors have combed the Mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Washington, DC, to write about and visit the graves of some of the most horren...
-
$19.95Biographies of Famous People Buried in Pennsylv...Biographies of Famous People Buried in Pennsylvania Joe Farrell, Joe Farley, and Lawrence Knorr are back with more interesting biographies and unusual tombstones. Included in this volume: Dick All...
-
$24.95Richard Peters was one of the most important of...Richard Peters was one of the most important officials in colonial Pennsylvania. In the employ of the Penns, Peters was at different times Secretary of the Land Office, Secretary of the Province, a...
-
$14.95Benjon Quimby, an indentured servant to farmer ...Benjon Quimby, an indentured servant to farmer Jonas Baumheit, heads with his master to a new settlement west of the Susquehanna near the newly built Fort Granville (now Lewistown, Pa.). Soon the p...
-
$22.95Thomas Edison Turns Two Thomas Edison didn’t in...Thomas Edison Turns Two Thomas Edison didn’t invent baseball any more than Abner Doubleday did. But his interest in the game might hold the key to unlocking a surprising secret. The Deadball Era wa...
-
$22.95Cranky, aging newspaper publisher Anne Canfield...Cranky, aging newspaper publisher Anne Canfield is determined to live forever, no matter what. Young, brilliant writer and teacher Indira Anand thinks she wants to die. But the winter morning Anne ...
-
$22.95Travels with Jim is the story of two young adul...Travels with Jim is the story of two young adults named Jim and Sorrie who travel across America together, each exploring their place in the world. Jim–the product of a broken home–believes his fat...
-
$22.95Shortly after Ethan Marshall attends the lake-s...Shortly after Ethan Marshall attends the lake-side funeral ceremony for his wife of forty years, he climbs into the car inside his enclosed garage in the suburbs of St. Louis, starts the engine, an...
-
$19.95Josh Goldberg is a young lawyer from a prestigi...Josh Goldberg is a young lawyer from a prestigious Philadelphia law firm. His girlfriend Kiesha is unconscious and in the hospital. She’s eight months pregnant and may be giving birth to their baby...
-
$16.95Anyone who has ever lived in the great state of...Anyone who has ever lived in the great state of Pennsylvania has at one time or another either read about or heard someone talk about one of its folktales and legends. These types of stories seem ...
-
$19.95A man grows up in the shadow of a heroic WWII v...A man grows up in the shadow of a heroic WWII veteran and takes extreme measures to follow in his father’s impossible footsteps, hoping to finally earn his parents’ love and respect. Nothing Left ...
-
$14.95by Bob Ford Bramble Rambles: Christmas (aka Bra...by Bob Ford Bramble Rambles: Christmas (aka Bramblemas) is a collection of writings that are focused upon advent, Christmas, Christmastide, and Epiphany. The book can be read as a devotional, and ...
-
$19.95Have you ever wondered if the tale of Little Re...Have you ever wondered if the tale of Little Red Riding Hood was the real story? Once upon a time ... we all know the classic stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel. N...
-
$22.95by Michael L Hawley The Watchmaker Revelations:...by Michael L Hawley The Watchmaker Revelations: Book 3 The Watchmaker is fully aware the most dangerous type of serial killer is one who keeps to the shadows. Unknown to New Orleans one is systemat...
-
$22.95Confessions of a 440-Year-Old Man Who hated Chr...Confessions of a 440-Year-Old Man Who hated Christy Henshaw enough to shoot her in the throat with an arrow, slash her corpse with hundreds of crisscrossing wounds and deposit her naked body in Roa...
-
$27.95Rian Krieger's Journey - Book 2 Philadelphia, 1...Rian Krieger's Journey - Book 2 Philadelphia, 1837. On six occasions, twelve-year-old tomboy Rian Krieger has escorted self-emancipated fugitives to the next station on their flight from enslavemen...
-
$22.95The legend of a survivor of the massacred Peral...The legend of a survivor of the massacred Peralta Mining Expedition (circa 1850) near Superstition Mountain in Arizona (verified by the many bones of horses, mules, and men found within and in rout...
-
$19.95The legend of a survivor of the massacred Peral...The legend of a survivor of the massacred Peralta Mining Expedition (circa 1850) near Superstition Mountain in Arizona (verified by the many bones of horses, mules, and men found within and in rout...
-
$14.95Who among us has not sometimes gazed upon the c...Who among us has not sometimes gazed upon the cloud-capped mountains of Pennsylvania and wondered what secrets lie hidden in their dark hollows and along their rushing glens? Who has hiked their sy...
-
$49.95Vice Admiral Charles Emery Rosendahl and the Na...Vice Admiral Charles Emery Rosendahl and the Navy’s Airship Program Following the First World War, it was expected that the next war would be between Japan and the U.S. for control of the vast Paci...
-
$24.95Mark Singel, the former Lieutenant Governor and...Mark Singel, the former Lieutenant Governor and former acting Governor of Pennsylvania, provides his wit, wisdom, and guidance regarding recent events on both the national and state levels. The art...
-
$19.95by Kyle Alexander Romines Josh Rush wants to en...by Kyle Alexander Romines Josh Rush wants to enjoy one final getaway with his friends before the end of high school. A spooky October camping trip in rural Appalachia sounds like the perfect opport...
-
$27.95A young elf yearns for freedom and adventure in...A young elf yearns for freedom and adventure in a world where elves and men live separated by prejudice and opportunity. A chance encounter with a half-elf girl leads to a journey to stop an evil w...
-
$22.95People are murdered everywhere. Hannah Stein, h...People are murdered everywhere. Hannah Stein, however, had been told that Parkerville, a small town in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was an exception, a safe, peaceful place. In 2005 Hannah’s idy...
-
$31.95Players Punching Their Ticket Out of Pittsburgh...Players Punching Their Ticket Out of Pittsburgh during the Barney Dreyfuss Era Since the dawn of baseball disputes between players and management have always existed. A glorious period of diamond ...
-
$22.95-- The Beauty of the Lonely Heart -- -- The U...-- The Beauty of the Lonely Heart -- -- The Untold Revelation in Her Own Words -- While sitting alone in the house of Mary, Mother of Jesus, in Ephesus, Turkey, Nancy Rhodes had an overpowerin...
-
$9.99This second volume in the Pennsylvania Mountain...This second volume in the Pennsylvania Mountain Landmarks series includes more accounts of the author’s explorations of little-traveled byways and cloud-capped hilltops in the mountains of Pennsylv...
-
$22.95One unremarkable Friday in April, a stream of o...One unremarkable Friday in April, a stream of ordinary people make their way to Liberty Mall in Anywhere, USA, to shop, work, keep appointments, or catch a movie. A typical day in an average town. ...
-
$24.95Meet Leo…. A dog full of kindness, wisdom, and ...Meet Leo…. A dog full of kindness, wisdom, and helpful advice. More Letters from Leo is a story made up of friendly letters between Leo and kids who are dealing with difficult situations. Leo respo...
Recently Viewed Products
The coal miners of the Willow Grove Mine.....I was born in 1949, so I don"t reme...mber too much of the explosion, but I do remember when I was in grade school my best girlfriend"s dad had lost both of his legs...I remember seeing him in the wheelchair when I was at her house,,back then that was terrible to see...My sister who is 6yrs. older than me told me that her father-in-law had traded shifts with another coal miner that day, but he survived...my dad was a coal miner, but he didn"t work at the Willow Grove Coal mine......I remember in grade school and high school riding the school bus past the site of the explosion...that is about all I remember....I was born and raised in Willow Grove until I was 18 yrs. of age...
Customer Reviews