Let Me Say This

Book excerpt: Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology offers 54 poets’ takes on often-unsung facets of this diamond in a rhinestone world—calling in Dolly’s impeccable comedic timing, her lyric mastery, her business acumen, and her Dollyverse advocacy. These poems remind us to be better and to do better, to subvert Dolly cliché, and they encourage us to weave Dolly metaphor into our own family lore. Within these pages, Dolly takes the stage and the dinner table; readers see the public Dolly of the silver screen and the private Dolly of identity contemplation. Dolly raises praise and question, and she butterflies into our hearts to unabashedly to claim the mantra In Dolly We Trust. With Dolly poems from 54 contributors: Kelli Russell Agodon • Nin Andrews • Lana K. W. Austin • David-Matthew Barnes • Nicky Beer • Julie E. Bloemeke • Emma Bolden • Dustin Brookshire • Phillip Watts Brown • Marina Carreira • Denise Duhamel • teri elam •Rupert Fike • Diamond Forde • Chad Frame • Makayla Gay • Tyler Gillespie • Kari Gunter-Seymour • Robert Gwaltney • Beth Gylys • Karen Head • Raye Hendrix • Collin Kelley • Dorianne Laux • Chin•Sun Lee • Arden Levine • Katie Manning • Kelly McQuain • Lynn Melnick • Jenny Molberg • Rachel Morgan • Caridad Moro-Gronlier • Carolyn Oliver • Dion O’Reilly • Jeffrey Perkins • Stephen Roger Powers • Steven Reigns • Linda Neal Reising • Benjamin Anthony Rhodes • Micah Ruelle • Anna Sandy-Elrod • Roberta Schultz • Maureen Seaton • Gregg Shapiro • L.J. Sysko • Nicole Tallman • Kerry Trautman • Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer • Dan Vera • Isaiah Vianese • Donna Vorreyer • Julie Marie Wade • Jennifer Wheelock • Yvonne Zipter