Of This River

Wheelbarrow Books

by Noah Davis

In a stunning and visceral debut, Noah Davis ushers in a new era of poems from the Alleghenyregion of Appalachia. In chronicling the river valley’s human and more-than-human worlds through acts of modern myth making, Davis expands the scope of contemporary American poetry. This soulful meditation on a neglected region of America reveals a legacy of lingering violence to land and animal alike. In striking stories and scenes, Davis portrays the spiritual cost of deep poverty, the necessity to ask for forgiveness, and the joy in praising the beauty still found in the steep hollows. These poems will cling to you like water on the soles of your boots.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Reviews

[Chris LaTray · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gorgeous, disturbing, thrilling, heartbreaking collection of work, keenly observed and delicately channeled into lines the rest of us get to revel in. Even though each poem can stand alone on its own merit, the theme that ties it all together—the short-haired girl who drowns in the first poem, and the people who shared her world with her—is wonderful. I spend my share of time in and observing the wild world and people who live on the fringes, but my landscapes are slightly different from Davis's due to our contrasting geography. So this collection feels like an opportunity to live among people unfamiliar to me in the company of someone who knows them very well, and I enjoyed that aspect of it very much. I do know these people, or at least their distant relatives. That is more than enough.

I'm very much smitten with this book. I can hardly wait for more from Noah Davis.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of This River by Noah Davis is the poets first published collection. His poems and prose have appeared in Best New Poets, Orion Magazine, North American Review, River Teeth Journal, Sou'wester, and Chautauqua. George Ella Lyon selected Of this River for the 2019 Wheelbarrow Emerging Poet Book Contest from Michigan State University's Center for Poetry.

Of this River stands out as an outstanding collection of contemporary poetry. The Appalachian theme that runs through the collection creates a subtle but vivid environment. Unlike many works that overstate themes, however, here the reader wades in and finds himself or herself emersed in the poetry. The water theme is nearly always present and anchors the poems together along with the short-haired girl. The connection between the water and the girl seems almost Woolfish.

The mythology that runs through the poems, although local, seems to have a Native American feel to the stories. It is very much in touch with the land rather than a being. A stunning collection that connects, explores, expresses life in the remote setting.

[Michael Downs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a poetry version of camping in the middle-states Appalachians. A good and in many ways richer substitute.

[Scott Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every poem in this dazzling debut collection reminds us that we are creatures, kin with bear and blackberry, turtle and potato, trout and oak. Noah Davis leads us into a primal world, where people live in direct contact with Earth, as all of our ancestors lived until a few centuries ago, and as some of our contemporaries still do, in places such as the Appalachian valley where most of these poems are set. Here, a lover’s body becomes a landscape of hills and hollows and hidden places, the skin a map of desire. A mysterious “short-haired girl” reappears throughout the book, part sage and part witch, talking with deer, feeding cornbread to the family hog, learning how to read rivers, traveling the risky path from childhood into the arms of boys. Those boys hunt and fish, dare one another to dive from bridges, and dream of finding the drowned body of the short-haired girl. In his attention to the earthy and ordinary, and in his spare use of language, Davis may remind readers of William Carlos Williams, Wendell Berry, James Wright, or Maurice Manning. But the resemblance is only an echo, not an imitation, for the voice we hear in Of This River is utterly fresh. The book leaves us hoping to hear more, much more, from this talented poet.

[Laura Dzubay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gift!!! I've been reading poetry recently while I boil water and stuff and I finished this a while ago but haven't taken it out of my kitchen yet— this is a compassionate book full of haunting, careful language and beautiful attention to the natural world and the ways in which our lives interact with it. The kind of book that reminds you how precise the surrounding world is when you stop to take in its details.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning debut collection of poetry focusing on the hardscrabble lives of people in Appalachia, particularly children, and their connection with the natural world there. Beautiful, poignant, and at times heartbreaking, this is a highly recommended book from a poet I look forward to reading more of.

[I received an e-galley of this book through #Netgalley.]

[Nick Totin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nostalgic collection for a person who grew up not all that far removed from the life lived by those mentioned in these poems. So grateful to Noah for sharing this work and reminding me what else exists beyond my two eyes.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most underrated reads of of the year (in my opinion), Of This River is a striking collection of the rural experience and environmental destruction. Here, the poet is witness through the lens of real & imagined characters in the Allegheny region.

[David LaMere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Amazing. Transcendent.

[Dearwassily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whiff of home.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, haunted, and haunting collection. I don't think I've ever read poems that so strongly evoked a sense of place, and the ways and rhythms of rural life.