Let the forest go : poems / Justin Wymer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wymer, Justin, Author.

Standardized Title:

Poems

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wymer, Justin.

Appalachian Region--Poetry.

Appalachian Region.

Gay poets.

Genre:

Poetry

Gay poetry -- https://homosaurus.org/v4/homoit0000517

Autobiographical poetry.

Physical Description:

xi, 123 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2026]

Summary:

"Let the Forest Go (LTFG) is a hybrid work of lyric prose and verse that embodies trauma as articulated through a fractured memory. It is a written archive of a speaker who is an expat; a queer person raised in a religious, small West Virginian town; a body that stores intergenerational trauma; a member of a family involved in the opioid epidemic; a mourner caught within Appalachian's poorly understood grieving rites; and a human among ecological devastation. By searching for beauty amid destruction, in memory and in daily living, the speaker questions whether beauty is a worthwhile end at all for the artist. The book's images evoke themes of home(lessness), trauma, eros, and saudade (a Portuguese word for longing for something that is not there and that does not necessarily exist). It was drafted while the speaker was an expat teaching English in Palencia and Galicia, Spain, the latter a place that looks startlingly like his Appalachian landscape but whose culture is very different from it, just before and after Trump's 2016 election. During this time, the speaker was charged with explaining the United States, a country he could not feel at home in because of his identity, to students in a foreign country. Through this process of cultural translation, he grows to understand that his queerness and Appalachianness are inextricable. In letters, poems, dispatches, and vignettes, the speaker seeks out people to share his experiences with and corroborate his memories of the place he left. LTFG also interrogates whether memory is a viable source for inspiration, fictional as it is, and how to embody queerness through fluctuating form"-- Provided by publisher.

"A note to the reader: This volume contains references to drug use, overdose, violence, homophobia, and other sensitive topics."-Provided by publisher

Contents:

Part 1. Ricochet

Part 2. The rise of the beast

Part 3. Homing : the book of Xa

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Online version Wymer, Justin Let the forest go

ISBN:

9781985904385

1985904381

9781985904378

1985904373

OCLC:

1533686019

Publisher Number:

CIPO000364623