Woodsmoke: Poems by Wayne Caldwell

“Woodsmoke” is an ideal title for a book of poetry whose meanings are extensive and deep. Nothing is more ethereal than woodsmoke, yet nothing stands more concretely for honest labor than preparing wood to burn, and no greater connection exists between mankind and nature than deriving warmth from trees. Nothing is more heartwarming than a wood fire.  When I published a poem by Wayne Caldwell entitled “Woodsmoke” in the Fall 2011 issue of Appalachian Heritage, I had no idea how that poem itself would evolve or how it would become the title poem of a collection. I’m proud to have played a small part because this book is engaging, enchanting, and endearing. Most of the poems are in the voice of Posey Green, an old mountain man, a widower, with deep roots in the North Carolina mountains in the shadow of Mount Pisgah. Scattered amongst them are a few poems in the voice of Susan McFall, a mainstream woman whose husband deserts her for a younger woman and who exacts enough revenge in the divo