Kari Gunter-Seymour

Kari Gunter-Seymour is the Poet Laureate of Ohio. Her poetry collections include Alone in the House of My Heart and A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen, winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award. She is the Poet Laureate of Ohio and is a 9th generation Appalachian. Gunter-Seymour is the founder/executive director of the “Women of Appalachia Project,” an arts organization she created to address discrimination directed at women from the Appalachian region by encouraging participation from women artists (spoken word and fine art ) of diverse backgrounds, ages and experiences to come together, embrace the stereotype, show the whole woman; beyond the superficial factors people use to judge her.

Today I gave a guy a ride, 

caught in a cloudburst 

jogging down East Mill Street.  

Skinny, backpacked, newspaper 

a makeshift shield, unsafe 

under any circumstances.

I don’t know what possessed me.

I make bad decisions, am forgetful, 

cling to structure and routine

like static electricity to polyester,                 

a predicament of living under 

the facade I always add to myself.

Said he needed to catch a GoBus,

shaking off droplets before climbing in. 

He gabbed about Thanksgiving plans,

his mom’s cider-basted turkey, 

grandma’s pecan-crusted pumpkin pie.

It was a quick, masked ride.

Bless you, he said, unfolding himself

from the car. No awkward goodbyes, 

no what do I owe you? Just Bless you

and a backward wave.

— Kari Gunter-Seymour from ’The Whole Shebang Up for Debate’