Trailing the Azimuth guides the readers down various trails through striking imagery, resonant language, and intensity of vision. Linked by allusions to the “azimuth,” the poems in this collection represent the search for direction in a world that is complex and uncertain, prompting the journey toward light and more mindfulness of self, others, and God. These lyrical compasses exhibit a multiplicity of style and subject informed by the poet’s travels, interest in hiking, and cultural awareness. Her multifaceted handicraft draws energy and empathy from everything in her background.
Taking us along on walks within her own native landscape and around the world, Danita Dodson gives us verses about the ancestral identities of an Appalachian homeplace, meditations upon places like the Southwest that unfold Native American storytelling, celebrations of global journeys that rejoice both diversity and oneness, psalms that uplift the divine presence in nature, and poems that reveal healing pathways through COVID-19 by elevating memory, hope, and rebirth.
Illuminated by Dodson’s unique voice as both a mountain woman and a citizen of the world, Trailing the Azimuth bridges physical and spiritual landscapes, offering readers a word-map as they traverse their own paths of life.
Trailing the Azimuth is also available at the following independent bookstores:
Moon Pie General Store and Book Warehouse (Pigeon Forge, TN)
Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe (Asheville, NC)
Praise for Trailing the Azimuth
“Trailing the Azimuth plumbs the deep complexities of being Appalachian, both inside and outside of Appalachia, a passionate exploration of beauty that ultimately transcends any region. Danita Dodson's is a fresh yet familiar voice. She has delivered here an extraordinary first collection of poems that will resonate long after the last one has been read.”
Amy Greene, bestselling novelist of Bloodroot and Long Man
“Whether you are an explorer, spiritual contemplative, or poetry lover craving a glimpse into the mystical beauty of life, you owe it to yourself to take this enchanting journey. A fellow trekker, I recognized the cool pull of mountain paths, but was surprised by tears of joy as Dodson took me on adventures from the colorful Caribbean to the timeless desert and beyond, eventually even leading me to peek at death and the numinous. Threads of light and hope skillfully weave the natural with the supernatural, and I felt refreshed and uplifted.”
D.K. Reed, author of The Stones of Bothynus trilogy
“The wisdom of Danita Dodson’s words resonates in her soft attention to the nature, people, and wildlife of southern Appalachia and elsewhere. Familiar, song-like rhythms mix with clear images to compose poems that both dazzle and inspire awe. This collection embodies learning, looking, and each love that surrounds the speaker, and by extension, us.”
Christina Seymour, author of When Is a Burning Tree
“In Trailing the Azimuth, Dodson invites her readers on an intellectual and spiritual journey. Whether along the pathways of her native Appalachia, or more ‘outbound treks’ through New Orleans or the Navajo lands of New Mexico or around Thoreau’s Walden Pond, or even farther afield—through Jamaica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, or Turkey—she ushers us with grace, tenderness, and boundless positivity. Part travelogue, part book of psalms, part meditation on a world-shaking pandemic, this collection reminds us of ‘the responsibility to remember,’ to ‘[bring] to light / the gold of buried knowledge.’ Dodson does so with keen observation and musicality, spiritual centeredness and mindfulness, and a deep love of place and culture. This book couldn’t come at more apt time. After so much pandemic darkness and despair, it offers its readers love and light.”
Gary J. Whitehead, author of Strange What Rises
“Written in the spirit of a travel journal, these poems capture what it might be like to walk alongside Danita Dodson on the trail. The reader is immediately struck with the union of the ‘here and now,’ the ‘what once was,’ and the ‘what lies beyond.’ The stirring images—uniting present and past, here and there, temporal and divine, Southern Appalachia and the utmost ends of the earth—capture the essence of storytelling and personal growth through verses. Dr. Dodson possesses a keen eye and perceptive lyrics, both of which are on full display here.”
Paul E. Reed, University of Alabama