THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Charles
Weymon Cook shown with Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva at her 104th
birthday
celebration in February, 2009. He read a
poem in tribute to her influence upon him as his high school
mathematics
teacher.
It is seldom
that we can read a
delightful
and revealing story about a mountain family written in poetry, with
just enough
prose interspersed to make the line quite understandable and appealing.
Charles Weymon Cook who was born to
Rufus and Nora Davenport Cook and calls Blairsville his hometown has
done just
that with his newly-published autobiographical poetry book entitled Beyond the Mountain Haze. Weymon,
as he was known growing up in
What makes the book even more appealing
is the fact that its author is what I like to call a “walking miracle.” Charles Weymon Cook underwent heart
transplant surgery on
Charles Weymon Cook’s father was Rufus
Cook, “Mr. Ranger,” one of the earlier forest rangers in
“I thank my God that I was there
To live and love and grow
Amidst the shadow of a giant,
With smiling face aglow.” (p. 65)
His mother, Nora Davenport Cook, has
her section in the book. Both parents
and their influence are seen throughout the book, but their own
sections are
especially provocative, leading the reader to recall and appreciate
family
roots that went deeply into the soil of a developing life and bore
fruit in
years “beyond the mountain haze.” A
descendant of the early
“You taught me love with gentle
hands,
Encouraging all the way;
You laid the founding cornerstone
By teaching me how to pray.” (p. 54)
I have the recent privilege of being
associated with Charles Weymon Cook, teacher, poet, friend, having met
him only
in recent years through our associations in the Georgia State Poetry
Society
and the Byron Herbert Reece Society of which we are both members. Occasionally I am able to meet for a meal
with him and his wife, LaVerne, or to travel to a meeting together.
Having
grown up in the same county, Charles and I didn’t know each other back
when we
were youth. I did know Charles’s older
brother, Donald, as we were nearer together in age. The day of Mrs.
Dora Hunter
Allison Spiva’s 104th birthday celebration in February,
2009,
Charles and I were both there and were able to read to her our
individual
poetic tributes for her profound influence on our lives.
She had much to do with each of us choosing
and pursuing careers in teaching.
Charles Weymon Cook writes in his
“Introduction” to his book, Beyond the
Mountain Haze: “My southern style ‘earthy’ verses simply
reflect
people, places and events that have influenced my life.
Some things just tear at the heartstrings and
trigger a melody in your soul that you wish to share with friends and
neighbors.”
This very modest appraisal by the
author of why he had to write the book only goes partially into why he
should,
indeed, have shared it. He had something
to say, and he said it with apparent ease and facility.
Find a copy of Beyond the Mountain Haze.
My prediction is that you, as I, will return to its pages again
and
again for inspiration, information and enjoyment. He
lifts the haze and allows us to see a
miracle heart, restored and ready to give praise to the Creator of all
beauty
and the Sustainer of life. And this he does in understandable,
sensitive and
positive poetry. Congratulations,
Charles Weymon Cook, mountain lad grown to productive citizen, whose
knowledge
and appreciation of family, environment and associations shine forth
from the
pages of your book.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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