From the book:
Reinventing Self
Reinvention has been the topic of the day
How Ronald Clyde Crosby of Oneonta, New York
became Jerry Jeff Walker of Austin, Texas
Peter Anthony took the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan
and became Pierre Antoine
Eliot Charles Adnopoz of Brooklyn ran off with
the JE Rodeo, heard Woody Guthrie
and became Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
And the master reinventor,
Robert Zimmerman up in Hibbing, Minnesota
also heard Woody
and became Bob Dylan
Sometimes it’s the leaving behind that is necessary
sometimes the going forward
Sometimes a new name is the only route
to becoming who you were supposed to be
When beavers build a dam,
a creek becomes a lake
and the forest becomes a swamp
Who knows what was supposed to be?
Sharp teeth cutting wood
Songs on the wind
Reinvention is an American tradition
Our roots are never far below the surface
quick to grab hold in new soil
Like beavers, we use it up and move on
Ruth Tonachel grew up in Greenwich Village and then moved 23 times and had drivers licenses in five states in the thirteen years after high school. Since 1986 she has lived primarily in rural Pennsylvania in a house her maternal colonizer ancestors built near Towanda Creek in the 1790’s. She obtained American Studies degrees from Wilmington College (BA) in Ohio and University of Alabama (MA) in Tuscaloosa. She compiled a bibliography of pre-World War II country music resources for the Library of Congress (1978) and had several poems published in the 1970s in now-defunct magazines.
A former reporter, editor, farm tax preparer, farmers market manager and folklorist, she has raised chickens, gardens and two daughters while writing about country music, sustainable agriculture, history and culture for varied local, state and national publications over the last 40 years.
As a child, her dream was to cross the United States in a covered wagon. Some of the vehicles she has traveled in were not much faster. The pandemic of 2020-21 paused her travels and this book was the result….
Maybe You Don’t Know Me:
is a 40 page hand-stitched chapbook - $10.00
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