A big shipment of new poetry books for the library from SPD crossed my desk today. High arty, low arty, avant, etc. I took a look at most of them. Only one of them caught my attention, moved me to continue reading:

Kettle Bottom, by Diane Gilliam Fisher
Florence, MA: Perugia Press, 2004

History poems in different voices focusing on the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-21.

Fisher seems to aim for a middle ground between poetry & colloquial speech, music & history. The bio note points to family background in Appalachia; the poetry shows a clear affinity. Achieves a certain readable-not-glib objectivity of feeling, perception, expression. Looks like a fine piece of work.