‘Through All Seasons’

Highlighting life in western North Carolina through poetry, Through All Seasons offers familiarity, comfort, and insights into writer Julia Nunnally Duncan’s home region.

Since childhood, I have loved poetry. My father introduced me to poetry through his recitations of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His favorite Longfellow poems were “A Psalm of Life” and “The Village Blacksmith.” I can still hear his voice reciting these poems to me. He had undoubtedly memorized them in his own boyhood and never forgot them through the years.

I started writing poetry when I was seven, and my parents bought me a desk to write at for Christmas, 1964, when I was eight. Since then, writing has been an essential part of my life. In recent years, with the steady and inevitable loss of family members, I have turned to poetry to express my grief and find solace. And in doing this, I have also shared my life with readers, through publications of my work. I’m always pleased when readers, especially those of my Boomer generation, tell me my experiences are reminiscent of their own.  I typically write about my textile mill hometown, Marion, NC, my upbringing in a working-class family, and long-ago friends from the 1960s. In my newest poetry collection, Through All Seasons, I have included reflections about a recent catastrophic event in Western North Carolina.

In September 2024, my region was struck by an unprecedented disaster: Hurricane Helene. This hurricane brought flooding that destroyed homes, changed landscapes, and took lives. While my family was spared the worst of the devastation, we witnessed the unrelenting rain and flooding. Even today, we still see the damage in nearby communities, such as Old Fort and Chimney Rock.

My Helene poems describe the horrific flooding and its aftermath. But they also express the extraordinary generosity and resilience of people helping one another during this nightmare. From the chapbook’s first section, “No One Will Forget,” a Helene poem reads:

Together We Are Stronger

I read on a sign in Black Mountain
six weeks after the flood,
after blood had been shed
in the most dreadful natural event
in our memories.
We had heard of the Flood of 1916,
and many of us had lived through
the Blizzard of 1993.
But truly, Hurricane Helene topped anything
we had seen.
Lives were lost—
sacrificed to the whims of Nature.
And yet despite the tragedy
of a flood whose virulence
we could not have imagined,
we stood together strong
and helped each other—
some with total selflessness.
Yes, indeed together we are stronger—
a joining of families, neighbors, strangers.
And like the poet Carl Sandburg,
who made his home in WNC,
predicted so accurately:
The people will live on.

In the book’s second section, “The Little Things,” I delve into memories of childhood and the inevitable passage of time. These poems revisit parents, neighbors, beloved animals, and long-ago friends who were lost in time.

And finally, the book’s third and last section, “Through All Seasons,” explores the natural world and its place in my life: a mischievous Australian shepherd, crows, squirrels, and a red-tailed hawk named Nikki. This section presents the change of seasons and the renewal that this change can bring. The book’s final poem, “When Spring Winds Blow,” suggests this promise of renewal:

When Spring Winds Blow

When spring winds blow,
they bring the promise of bud and bloom;
grass turns green
and sky blue,
and all is renewed again.
Spring reminds us that
winter is behind,
and what we see ahead
gives us hope.
May we rejoice in the moment
we are granted today
and know faith must stay with us
through all seasons.

In Through All Seasons, I have once again shared my life in Western North Carolina. It’s my wish that readers will learn something about my region and find moments both familiar and, hopefully, comforting.

Julia Nunnally Duncan is a Western North Carolina author of fourteen books of poetry and prose. She lives in Marion, NC, with her husband, Steve, a mountain woodcarver. Through All Seasons can be purchased from the author; inquire at nunndun@yahoo.com. It can also be ordered from the publisher, Iris Press, at www.irisbooks.com.