FRANK X WALKER told his audience at the Woodford County Library that the story of Kentucky, especially as it relates to the Civil War, has been dramatically under-told. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

A LARGE TURNOUT remained silent when Kentucky poet laureate Frank X Walker read from his Load in Nine Times, a book of poetry in the voices of people who lived before, during and after the Civil War. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

By Bob Vlach

Woodford Sun Staff

Before reading a few of his poems in Load in Nine Times, Kentucky poet laureate Frank X Walker told a large audience at the Woodford County Library, “Some of them might make you squirm, kind of make you flinch. … But all of them are grounded in truth and history.”

“I know the power of the truth, and I’m trying to share my truth with you today because it’s our truth,” he continued during his Honoring Our Black Heritage program Feb. 26.

As he read words in his poems, Walker expressed emotion – not only with his voice rising and then falling, but with his facial expressions – so those listening could feel that space.

They stayed quiet as he read poems in the voices of people who lived before, during and after the Civil War.

In “Damned Northern Aggressors,” the voice of a Woodford County man talks about wanting to beat all of his slaves twice a day – “If I had the energy in my younger years.” Or in “The Fire Last Time” in the voice of his slave, the widow of a U.S. Colored Troop soldier, who plans to run away because “feet answer prayers too.”

“Those are hard poems,” he says. “… Imagine living it …”

Load in Nine Times “tries to chronicle Kentucky history in a way that most textbooks don’t – or haven’t,” said Walker. He said the story of Kentucky, especially as it relates to the Civil War, has been dramatically under-told.

“This state,” Walker said, “contributed the largest number of African American soldiers (almost 30,000) in the country.” Many of the 5,000 men who went to Camp Nelson to join up so they could gain their freedom were accompanied by their families. Those families lived in Camp Nelson, which became a refugee camp and “the first truly free place for Black people in Kentucky,” Walker said.

Even so, Load in Nine Times is “not really about the Civil War,” he continued. “This book is about Black families, Kentuckians – before the Civil War, during the Civil War and immediately after the Civil War.

“It’s a story … that really shines a light on what’s happening today in the United States,” he said.

He talked about lynchings that happened after the Civil War. And later, he discussed how books like his that delve into history educate people about the truth, which he said, “builds community, builds a real democracy.”

“My work tells the truth. It’s not bias. It’s partisan. It’s the truth,” he added. He then challenged anyone to explain to him why diversity, equity and inclusion are bad words.

Walker also reflected on a family member from generations ago who had to have two witnesses (her sons) because she couldn’t read or write and signed legal documents with an X. “Those documents were a visual example of when my family became literate in one generation,” he said.

So in his 20s, Walker legally changed his name to Frank X Walker in honor of Mary X Edelen because “it was like she reached across time…,” he said.

Before Walker read from Load in Nine Times and discussed what inspired its poems, Woodford County Judge-Executive James Kay lauded the University of Kentucky professor as an author “whose words do not just sit on pages – they grieve, they haunt, they heal.”

Moreover, Kay described Woodford County’s Honoring Our Black Heritage series as a way to “illuminate the voices and histories that have shaped who we are.”

The Black Heritage series is co-sponsored by the Woodford County Library, Woodford County Historical Society, Huntertown Community Interpretive Park and Woodford County government.