Write With Your Spine

The Tumblr home of Crystal Wilkinson author of Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street

omnipresentspeed:

My wife frequently wonders why I speak the way I do. Watch this video, I learned how to talk from these people. Also, how I cross and make up words? That is just how it works. 

My family is from Appalachia, my mom was from West Virginia and my dad was from Kentucky. I understood about 90% of the “made up” words. Appalachian is a wonderful tongue and dialect, it is a mix of Scottish, Irish, English, African, and Native Indian. My family were all dirt poor Irish and Scottish immigrants who grew up in the mountains, my parents were the first generation to leave the region. 

It warms my heart to see stuff like this, reminds me so much of my family. I love it.

Thanks for posting this. And my people talk like this too (from Casey and Lincoln counties in Kentucky) I miss the sound of country and Appalachian black folk talking like this. You don’t see it much any more unless they are older. Thanks for sharing.

(via omnipresentspeed-deactivated201)

ivintagenoire: pat evans and isaac hayes. let it all sink in. I repost this everytime I see it. I Dig this photo.

ivintagenoire:

pat evans and isaac hayes. let it all sink in.

I repost this everytime I see it. I Dig this photo.

(via upfromsumdirt)

Languages are best learned young, when there’s the chance you’ll mean what you say later in life.

—Yannick Murphy, Here They Come (via murmurandshout)

Mutt: What do blues do for you?
Ursa: It helps me to explain what I can’t explain.

—Corregidora by Gayl Jones (via ibik23)

We all create stories to protect ourselves.

—Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves (via pavorst)

In Those Years

rabbit-light:

In those years, people will say, we lost track
of the meaning of we, of you
we found ourselves
reduced to I
and the whole thing became
silly, ironic, terrible:
we were trying to live a personal life
and yes, that was the only life
we could bear witness to
But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged
into our personal weather
They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove
along the shore, through the rags of fog
where we stood, saying I

Adrienne Rich

(Source: theysaid.livejournal.com)

upfromsumdirt: From channeling Otis Redding to calling down Eshu, Marcus got us covered! (Taken with instagram)

upfromsumdirt:

From channeling Otis Redding to calling down Eshu, Marcus got us covered! (Taken with instagram)