Poets Gather for Reading Two Years After Helene

Hilda Downer, editor of Had I a Dove, poses with a copy of the book after the reading, held on September 26, 2026, to mark Helene’s 2 year anniversary. Photo Credit: Aspen Hickman

Aspen Hickman, Junior Editor and News Desk Lead for The Powderhorn

When Hurricane Helene swept through the southern Appalachian mountains in late September of 2024, she left many things in her wake: destruction and death, blocked roads and valley-wide rivers. But among those things Helene left behind were poets, who gathered together to tell their personal stories of the flood in the poetry anthology “Had I a Dove.”

2 years after Hurricane Helene, the large, sanitary classroom in Appalachian State University’s Leon Levine Hall seems so removed from the storm that changed millions of lives. Here on the second floor, water never stained the walls and mud never gathered on the floor like snow. 

“When my church convened, we just passed around the microphone and told what had happened to us, and it really helped,” said Hilda Downer, High Country Poet Laureate, who compiled the anthology. “And I do believe that when you voice things, that it is healing, it is processing. And, of course, I believe that with writing, that's processing.”

For Downer and others at the reading, poetry is more than words on a page. Writing, reading, and listening to poems has helped them to understand what they and their communities experienced during Helene.

“I think that it's super important for someone, and usually those someones are the poets, to be able to articulate what has happened,” said Robin Lowe, an English teacher at Watauga High School who attended the reading. “When you allow a plethora of voices to take note of those different emotions, then it makes, I think, other individuals feel like their experience is not isolated.”

Raised in Mitchell County, specifically the Bandana area, Downer has been writing poetry since her teens. Her first book of poetry was published when she was still in high school. After Helene, one of the things that Downer saw rubbed her the wrong way: a YouTube video showing a celebrity visiting Western NC to see the damage for himself.

“He kept saying, ‘these people never complain’. And when he would repeat that, I cringe[d], because I'm Appalachian, 11th generation,” said Downer. “And I thought, who is he to tell the true story? He didn't experience it.”

That experience, along with others, inspired Downer to begin collecting work for the anthology. Poems read by contributors to “Had I a Dove” ranged from downcast to hopeful, and many placed emphasis on the value of community in the aftermath of Helene. Downer spoke about how one of her first concerns after Helene was for the poetry community. 

“I feel like Appalachians are born storytellers. It's in our bones,” said Downer. “I wanted to collect Appalachian poets because I feel more comfortable with poetry. Especially in Western North Carolina, or people who had ties to Appalachia.”