Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 8.05 Environment and Ecology
Presentation #1 Title
“Think Ocean to Ocean”: George Scarbrough, Han-shan, and The Tao of Tennessee
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In poems composed near the end of his life evoking the eighth-century poet Han-shan, George Scarbrough found both a liberating voice for speaking about his private life and a way of offering to his Appalachian readers an East-Asian perspective for addressing regional problems. Of the Taoist recluse “Cold Mountain,” Scarbrough says, "Han-shan was a taker of roads/ Speaking doubtless in his unrest/ Clever and excellent words,/ Pronouncing the Way./ . . ./ All men tread the same ground" (“The Gift”). Ideas of “The Way,” Taoism, the ancient belief of acting in harmony with natural order, were practiced by some early European settlers and the ancient Native Americans of the mountains. As Marilou Awiakta argues: “Perhaps if we study how indigenous people spun their original web, we can adapt their skill to our own time.” Many Appalachians, nurtured by geography similar to that of the mountain poets of China, have lost their” Way” of understanding that identity is determined by how we fit or do not fit unto the natural order of things. Poets such as Scarbrough revive an array of lost Appalachian wisdom which has much in common with beliefs of the Taoist poets. As Jim Wayne Miller’s Brier urged, “You can think ocean-to-ocean.” West Virginia poet Kirk Judd has said “I thought the rural agrarians I knew in WV were pretty right thinking and much more in tune with an Eastern view than linear Western thought.” May the policy-makers and planners follow this way of the poets.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Rob Merritt is Professor of English and Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Bluefield College in Virginia. Poet and essayist, his most recent book of poems is The Language of Longing (2012). His poetry deals with the transformative power of landscape and language.
Merritt’s writing often concerns how the sensibilities of one geography can “make new” perceptions of another. How can paying homage to the shan-shui wilderness poets of China give Appalachian writers methods to persevere in spite of isolation and marginalization?
His poetry has been published in the chapbook Landscape Architects and in a number of journals including The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Village Rambler, Asheville Poetry Review, Kestrel, and two anthologies: Wild Sweet Notes II: An Anthology of West Virginia Poets and Coal: A Poetry Anthology.
“Think Ocean to Ocean”: George Scarbrough, Han-shan, and The Tao of Tennessee
Corbly Hall 467
In poems composed near the end of his life evoking the eighth-century poet Han-shan, George Scarbrough found both a liberating voice for speaking about his private life and a way of offering to his Appalachian readers an East-Asian perspective for addressing regional problems. Of the Taoist recluse “Cold Mountain,” Scarbrough says, "Han-shan was a taker of roads/ Speaking doubtless in his unrest/ Clever and excellent words,/ Pronouncing the Way./ . . ./ All men tread the same ground" (“The Gift”). Ideas of “The Way,” Taoism, the ancient belief of acting in harmony with natural order, were practiced by some early European settlers and the ancient Native Americans of the mountains. As Marilou Awiakta argues: “Perhaps if we study how indigenous people spun their original web, we can adapt their skill to our own time.” Many Appalachians, nurtured by geography similar to that of the mountain poets of China, have lost their” Way” of understanding that identity is determined by how we fit or do not fit unto the natural order of things. Poets such as Scarbrough revive an array of lost Appalachian wisdom which has much in common with beliefs of the Taoist poets. As Jim Wayne Miller’s Brier urged, “You can think ocean-to-ocean.” West Virginia poet Kirk Judd has said “I thought the rural agrarians I knew in WV were pretty right thinking and much more in tune with an Eastern view than linear Western thought.” May the policy-makers and planners follow this way of the poets.
