Waist Deep in Black Water

by Lane, John

• ISBN13: 9780820326214
• ISBN10: 0820326216
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

John Lane has scaled a granite dome in the Suriname rain forest and waded past cottonmouths in the heart of a Florida cypress swamp. He has shadowed crocodiles in a Yucatan mangrove thicket and paddled the rapids of North Carolina's Tuckaseegee River in search of a drowned kayaker.Waist Deep in Black Wateroffers a collection of Lane's own writings that range from wilderness exploration, to conservation issues, to explorations of family history in Spartanburg, South Carolina.Lane's trek to the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark in Wyoming becomes an occasion to draw connections between religion, sexuality, and mountain lore. A hike into Kentucky's Red River Gorge prompts a meditation on the words and spirit of Wendell Berry, who helped prevent the gorge from being dammed. Some of Lane's writings are set closer to home, where the South Carolina hills meet the Blue Ridge. In "Something Rare as a Dwarf-Flowered Heartleaf," Lane recounts his campaign to stop the development of a woodland area within Spartanburg's city limits. Family issues also surface, as in "Confluence: Pacolet River." Here Lane kayaks through country where his family has lived for generations as he reckons the distances between himself and his farming, millworking forebears.Something is always at stake wherever Lane takes us: a stand of old-growth trees, a primate population, a friendship, a soul. Lane bestows loving attention on the places and people he visits in this collection and, in the process, goes beyond the traditional concerns of nature and travel writing.

Author Biography

John Lane’s writing has been published in Orion, American Whitewater, Southern Review, Terra Nova, and Fourth Genre. His books include Waist Deep in Black Water, The Woods Stretched for Miles, and Chattooga (all published by Georgia), several volumes of poetry, and Weed Time, a gathering of his essays. Lane is an associate professor of English at Wofford College.

Table of Contents

Author's Note	p. ix
Edges
Medicine Wheel	p. 3
The Once-Again Wilderness	p. 17
Ascent and Summit	p. 24
Natural Edges	p. 32
Field
A Stand of Cypress	p. 37
My Last Eden	p. 54
The Crocodile	p. 62
Home Territory
Something Rare as a Dwarf-Flowered Heartleaf	p. 83
The Road	p. 95
Walking Kelsey Creek	p. 105
Huxley	p. 112
Headwaters	p. 120
Death by Water	p. 131
Family Wilderness
One Family Line	p. 139
The Inheritance of Autumn	p. 152
Slurry	p. 160
The Ice Storm	p. 169
Confluence: Pacolet River	p. 174
Acknowledgments	p. 187
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