There’s something magical about the mountains that no camera can capture and no words can describe. It’s a feeling. It’s a mindset. It’s what John Muir meant when he said, “The mountains are calling, and I must go.” It’s how I felt when I was in Portland, Oregon taking in the full majesty of Mount Hood, and it’s how I feel this week in western North Carolina.
A big part of our travel has been bookstores. My sister-in-law and I fell in love with Highland Books in Brevard, and I’ve added it to my list of favorites, with Malaprops in Asheville and Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon being right up at the top of the list. Fun fact: they’re all Independent bookstores, and they’re thriving. It’s hard to find a great poetry section in a big chain bookseller, but the poetry sections in these stores are thoughtfully curated.
I belong to a Postcard Poetry group led by Barbara Robinette, and I was so pleased to meet another member, fellow poet Kit Schmeiser of Asheville, yesterday when we visited the downtown area to play mahjong at The Velvet Wind and go book wallowing in Malaprops. Kit and I have exchanged poetry postcards for a couple of months now, and that’s how we met. She sent me a postcard with a white squirrel from Brevard, I sent her one letting her know I was on the way to spot those squirrels, and Kit reached out to Barbara to connect with me by phone before my trip to give me all the best kept secrets about where to find them and what to do in Brevard. We had our photo made together by the postcard rack as we looked at all the gorgeous cards. I like that our first names are so similar!
We had lunch together at the old Woolworth Walk lunch diner, and I enjoyed listening to Kit describe her process of choosing postcards that speak to her (I knew what she meant when she said she has to feel the pull of the card). She writes poetry based on the postcard in an ekphrastic approach, and she chooses cards and poems especially for those on her list of names. She’d been taking a book binding class earlier in the day, and she shared her book process with me. I was fascinated with her descriptions and impressed by her passion and talent.
This is what matters in poetry. The human connection. I’m so glad that we can share the journey with others who notice what needs to be seen in the world and share it in writing.
Before Malaprops, we visited Highland Books more than a few times during our brief visit to Brevard.
And the trip home holds more book scouting adventures – including the largest used bookseller in South Carolina! It’ll be like a treasure hunt.
