Push Mountain Road...a review

With the ground covered in a layer of snow and sleet, and temperatures rising only into the low twenties, I tucked my feet under me on the couch, covered up with my five-patch quilt, and settled in for hot cocoa and poetry.

My choice for this winter’s day was Push Mountain Road, by Pat Durmon. Pat sees the world through the wisdom shrouded eyes of one who has experienced life’s hills and valleys, joys and sorrows, yet still carries the vision of a young girl who can see a troupe of fairy dancers in a field of daisies swaying in the breeze, and spend a pleasant afternoon watching the ballet. Her poetry reflects the truth in life along with the hopes and dreams playing hide and seek in the pines.

In Push Mountain Road, Pat takes the reader on a journey into the Ozarks to meet the people and creatures who call this special place home. A simpler place where there is time to meander down a back road and wait for wild turkeys to cross the road, time to sit in a deer stand and watch the sun rise. She invites everyone to visit small towns that are just “footnotes” and town squares where farmers’ markets and festivals are still the normal. One can almost smell the water as you drift along on a lazy river in a flat-bottomed boat.

Her poems satisfy a longing in this busy world for time; to breathe, to relax, to watch flowers bloom, to ask a neighbor how things are going and have time to hear the answer over a cup of coffee. They remind us of days past when it was enough to lay on the grass, not caring if your clothes became stained, and watch clouds drift past, imagining the worlds they would touch on their travels.

Push Mountain Road feeds the mind the way a pot of pinto beans, some fried potatoes and cornbread feed a hungry southern belly.