The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE—M. Ray Allen, founder of Appalfolks of America Association (AAA) and author of four books of poems, has created a new poetic form that is featured in his fifth collection titled 777 Poems.
Allen defines a 777 poem as a poem with seven stanzas, each stanza composed of seven lines, and each line comprised of seven monosyllabic words. An additional feature of a 777 poem is that each of the seven stanzas must begin with the word, “Christ.”
He remarked, “While battling COVID-19 in 2020, near Christmas, I came up with the idea to structure a poem to reflect God’s perfect number, 777.”
Nightshade Press in Troy, MA published Allen’s first collection of poems, The Roads I Travel in 1990, and in 1991, ROAD Publishers, Fairfax Station, VA published Between the Thorns: Windcarver Songs of Appalachia that featured an “Introduction” by Jim Wayne Miller, Poet Laureate of Kentucky.
Mountain Empire Publications published Allen’s next two collections: Beyond Star Bottom and Other Poems in 2000 and An Appalachian Poet in San Francisco in 2013, the same year the title poem won The Beat of Our Own Drum Poetry Contest, a national poetry contest held by the Green River Writers of Louisville, Kentucky.
Sixteen of Allen’s poems have won cash prizes for first place in poetry contests, and many of his poems have won cash prizes for second and third place finishes. Add the number of his poems that have won honorable mention awards, and the award-winning poems total more than 40.
The Encyclopedia of Appalachia, a 2006 publication of the University of Tennessee Press, features Allen as a post-World War II poet, and he was inducted as the 80th member of the Morehead State University Alumni Hall of Fame in 1991, for his literary achievements, his career as an educator, and his community service work with AAA.
The 777 Poems is unique in that it features seven poems that are seven stanzas in length, and the collection includes a section following the seven poems that poses one question about the content of each of the seven stanzas in each of the seven poems.
Additionally, the book has a third section that includes the answers to the questions based on the King James Version of the Bible along with Biblical references for further discussion.
Allen made his poetic debut as a featured reader at the opening ceremony of the Douglass House Center in Long Beach, CA in 1968, where Academy-Award-winning-screen-writer Budd Schulberg served as the keynote speaker. Allen read two of his original poems, one about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other one about a carnival dancer titled “Sandy O’Hara.”
Besides his achievements as a poet, Allen has pursued a career in journalism, having taught journalism classes in high schools in KY and VA, having written hundreds of freelance articles that were published in newspapers and magazines, and having served as the editor of The Virginian Review from December of 2022 till February of 2023.
During his 41-year career as an educator who taught in the public schools of KY, MI, CA and VA, Allen taught 10 other subjects at one time or another other than journalism: English, reading, creative writing, screenplay writing, drama, mythology, photography, physical education, health, and hunter’s safety.
He also served as a varsity coach in both boys and girls basketball, baseball, golf, cross country and YPF, a team he coached that won the Southern California YPF championship for Marina High School in Huntington Beach by defeating Crawford High School of San Diego.
The back cover of the 777 Poems includes Allen’s photo along with seven reviews of his 777 Poems. Those reviews are by Pastor Glenn Linthicum of the Covington Baptist Church, Pastor Brandon Nicely of Victory Baptist Church in Clifton Forge, Pastor Luke Benton of Immanuel Baptist Church in Clifton Forge, Pastor Emeritus H. Ray Tucker of the Methodist Church, Pastor Doug Moore who retired after 38 years of service at the Lone Star Advent Christian Church in Clifton Forge, Retired Attorney and Lay Speaker of the UMC David B. Davis of Covington and Jon Loose, a messianic playwright and author from Linden, MI who resides in Clifton Forge.
Allen concluded, “The “Foreword” for the 777 Poems is by Charles Billingsley, a nationally prominent pastor and recording artist who is a teaching pastor at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA.
The 777 Poems sells for $15.00 per book, and orders can be filled by writing to Mountain Empire Publications at P.O. Box 613, Clifton Forge, VA 24422. Checks should be made payable to M. Ray Allen. A portion of each sale will be donated to AAA.
