Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues
“ALL COME TO LOOK FOR AMERICA” a review by Jim Clark Joseph Bathanti and David Potorti, Editors. Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 and Its Aftermath. Press 53, 2021.
JIM CLARK is a Professor Emeritus of English at Barton College in Wilson, NC, where he was the Elizabeth H. Jordan Professor of Southern Literature from 2007 until 2019 and served as Dean of the School of Humanities. Some of his honors include the Randall Jarrell Scholarship, the Harriette Simpson Arnow Short Story Award, and the Merrill Moore Writing Award. He served as the President of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association in 2015 and the Chair of the North Carolina Writers Conference in 2017.
DAVID POTORTI is a writer and reporter, who has contributed to a variety of media outlets including The Nation, Independent Weekly, Adbusters, Spy Magazine, New Times LA, Philadelphia City Paper, Old Time Herald, and Bluegrass Unlimited.
RIGHT Joseph Bathanti at Bookmarks
in Winston-Salem, NC, 12 Sept. 2021
77
In his Preface, Bathanti provides some insight into both the book’s title and its cover illustration: “The great Samuel Beckett reminds us that ‘Words are all we have.’ The aspiration of this volume is to brave the rift, the breach, that only words can begin, however precariously, to mend” (xii). Bathanti also gives an account of the book’s genesis, and, importantly, touches on the real value, the raison d’etre, of such an anthology of occasional poems focusing on a historical event. Speaking of “the vast collateral fallout associated with 9/11,” Bathanti writes: “These poems give moving and powerful testimony to what Carolyn Forché calls ‘the poetry of witness’ – a ritual act of reconciliation through language; a renewed sense of shared humanity and righteous resistance; and, perhaps most importantly, a sacred vow to never forget” (xii). Speaking of the poets whose works are included, Potorti writes in his warm and personal Introduction: “Most of all, I hope their words make it safe to remember: to remember my brother and all those who perished; to remember who we were, and aspire to be; and to remember the world we lived in, not PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL GRIFFIN
Former Poet Laureate of North Carolina JOSEPH BATHANTI teaches at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. The author of several books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, his most recent book, Light at the Scene (Louisiana State University Press, 2022), received the Roanoke Chowan Award for Poetry from the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. A review of this collection is forthcoming in NCLR Online Fall 2023.
Having tried, unsuccessfully, some years ago to put together an anthology of Appalachian poetry for a respected university press, I have nothing but admiration for editors of anthologies. The reasons for my lack of success were many, but one was certainly the fact that I seriously underestimated the complexity of such a project and its demands on an editor’s time and energy. And when the anthology’s focus is as potentially fraught as that of Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath, it’s a tribute to the skill, perseverance, and even-handedness of editors Joseph Bathanti and David Potorti that we have this valuable document at all. Bathanti and Potorti are each particularly suitable for this work as both have spent much of their lives working for social justice and fostering understanding and community. Bathanti’s tireless work with prisoners and veterans is exemplary and oft noted, while Potorti has served as an effective ambassador for and champion of North Carolina writers and writing in his various roles with the North Carolina Arts Council, and he is co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, having lost his brother, Jim, when the North Tower fell on 9/11. The book is a medium-sized, handsome grayscale production featuring one poem each by 116 different poets. The cover design features a photograph of French aerialist Philippe Petit literally “crossing the rift” on a tightrope strung between the two towers on August 7, 1974.
N C L R ONLINE