Groundwork [Paperback]

Published in 1979 by Gnomon Press

InGroundwork, Robert Morgan offers a vivid poetic excavation of Appalachian life, memory, and landscape. Drawing deeply from his upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Morgan crafts a collection that is both intimate and elemental. These poems explore the textures of rural existenceits labor, rituals, and natural rhythmsthrough language that is spare, musical, and richly evocative.

Morgans verse is rooted in place, yet it transcends regionalism through its mythic resonance and emotional clarity. He sifts through family lore, childhood recollections, and local history to recover what he calls pieces of the morgenlanda personal and cultural terrain shaped by hardship, resilience, and wonder. The poems inGroundworkare populated by grandparents, farmers, and mountain folk, rendered with a quiet reverence that elevates the everyday to the numinous.

This collection marks a foundational moment in Morgans career, establishing the poetic voice that would inform his later fiction and nonfiction. With titles like Mountain Bride, Burning the Hornets Nest, and Baptism of Fire, the poems evoke both the physical and spiritual dimensions of Appalachian life.Groundworkremains one of Morgans most concentrated and enduring tributes to the Southern mountains and their people.

Essential for readers of American poetry, Appalachian studies, and environmental literature,Groundworkis a lyrical testament to the power of memory and place.