Wild Dog Press
Still Life Waiting: Notes from a Ghost Town by Meg Freer
About Still Life Waiting
Still Life Waiting is a set of poems inspired by trips the author made to Garnet, a former mining town near Missoula, Montana, which has been a ghost town for several decades. The landscape of this remote mountain site provides a backdrop for the story of the town’s journey through boom and bust periods. Each poem honors one resident who braved the harsh climate and work conditions in pursuit of gold and silver, or one aspect of life in the town. The poems are interspersed with photos, both color and black and white, from two different trips to the town about 25 years apart.
Praise for Still Life Waiting
"Reading Still Life Waiting, it was as if I was magically transported back 100-125 years through time and space to Garnet, Montana. I could hear the sounds, smell the wood in the stoves and fireplaces, hear the noise of the miners, the blacksmith’s hammer, the children on the way to the candy store, or school, or home. Freer does beautiful work pulling what she has discovered from printed records, photos, and tales, and then laying that out in a wonderful image-laden, poetic narrative. I can see myself revisiting this place from time to time through this book. Maybe you’ll visit once, too."
Bruce Kauffman
Poet; Author of Still Arriving
"In Still Life Waiting, Meg Freer writes about an abandoned mining town in Montana and takes readers full circle through the lifespan of the rush to the bust. The poems remind us that these were hard times, not simply a literal gold mine. From Double Jacking: “3-4 feet dug: one or two dollars pay / 9 out of 10 carts: waste rock / one mistake: injury or death”. Davey’s Store provides readers with a personalized view into the life of an individual who tried to capitalize on the mining boom. Images that accompany the poems show the makeshift housing that frontiersman were willing to live in for the “dream of the mother lode / freedom to choose your destiny” (Homesteading at 6,000 Feet)."
Mark Danowsky
Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry
About the Author
​Meg Freer grew up in Missoula, Montana, and now lives in Ontario, where she works in the arts. She holds two music degrees and a Certificate in Creative Writing. Her prose, poetry, and photos have appeared in numerous journals and four chapbooks, and she is co-poetry editor at The Sunlight Press.
