Planted by the Signs: Poems by Misty Skaggs

I have never bought any art work, but I did trade for one piece of art which I display proudly in my living room. The artist is Misty Skaggs. It is a collage featuring a portrait of Mother Jones that proclaims, “I Am Not a Humanitarian. I Am a Hellraiser!”  Misty Skaggs is more than an artist. She is a writer, a gardener, a caregiver, a photographer, and an all-around lover of the Eastern Kentucky mountains where she was born, raised, and lives. This book is the closest thing to a “zine” that I’ve seen a university press publish. Start with the author’s “Preface,” a beautiful tribute to her Great Mamaw, Lovel Blankenbecker, and relish all these poems anchored deeply in the land and the seasons. “These are the poems we need—their surprise, their shine, their fearlessness, their joy, their brazen and unrepentant love of women the world has tried (and failed) to render invisible. If ever there was an example of the political and the personal merging with pure fearlessness and urgency, it’