Overview

Ironweed is a glimpse into a family who migrated to Southwest Ohio from Elliott County, Kentucky, in 1950. North across the Ohio, there was economic opportunity. But the journey across by car took them to a place as strange and lonely as their original ancestors experienced coming from the British Isles over 200 years ago. Lack of social connection, language, and cultural differences were significant barriers to the success of this isolated family. The book's author begins the story at the point when there is a tragic loss in the family, and she begins to search for comfort and purpose through poetry and remembered experiences. The quest is not resolved, and grieving what is lost continues. Ironweed is a wildflower that grows tall in the fields. It is becoming scarce, but when equally challenged against commercial annual blooms, the wildflower persists.

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Jackie Ison Kalbli's family migrated to Butler County, Ohio, from Elliott County, Kentucky, in 1950 during a period when jobs in construction, auto, and industry lured folks from Appalachia in the hope of better lives. As a child, she was an outsider, a hillbilly, a briar. She worked hard to erase evidence of that heritage, such as dialect, because it was identified with ignorance. Food customs were hidden. Visits to Kentucky were few. Now, as an elder, she celebrates and elevates all things coming out of the hills and hollers. A pilgrimage often takes her to Isonville or Sandyhook, where she looks for clues and relatives but mostly finds graves. She appreciates the inner Kentuckian that she is and grieves the loss of those connections. Jackie concluded a teaching career that spanned 38 years and is now retired but is still happiest at school. She earned two Bachelor's Degrees at the University of Cincinnati, an M.Ed. at Miami University, and an MFA in Poetry at Ashland University in Ohio. She lives in Oxford, Ohio, with her husband. She grows weeds, tomatoes, peppers and plants trees. At age 73, Ironweed is her first chapbook.

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