The Caving Grounds: Poems

Kathleen M. Heideman's The Caving Grounds excavates the rubble of Negaunee, a small town in Upper Michigan hollowed by a century of mining. The extraction of hematite caused underground collapses and sinkholes; undermined neighborhoods were deemed unstable; homes, churches and even cemeteries were moved, and dangerous areas fenced. Thankfully, a guide will emerge: Rusty.

"Her guide is Rusty, a drinker and a daredevil who travels the danger zones where people, houses, and herds of cattle have been lost. With Rusty and other residents, Heideman descends into the past through virgin forests, indigenous knowledge, and strong headwinds of economic development that lead to depletion. She travels underground, much the same as going down to Hades to witness the clammy workplaces that never would see the sun." -Sheila Packa, author of Night Train Red Dust

"In Kathleen M. Heideman, Upper Michigan's wild woods and creatures and old timber towns and mining communities and rich but wounded earth itself have found one of their truest poetic voices. Freighted deep with her vast natural, cultural, ecological, historical, and-above all-local knowledge, her work both sings and heals the place that births it." -Jonathan Johnson, author of The Desk on the Sea

"The Caving Grounds is one of the most original books I've ever read. It is partly an impressionistic history of actual caving grounds, but it is much more than that. There is weeping here. There is wild humor, passion, and mystery." -Jim Moore, author of Underground

Kathleen M. Heideman is the author of A Brief Report on the Human Animal and Psalms of the Early Anthropocene. She lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Book #2 in the Yooper Poetry Series From Modern History Press

© 2025 Modern History Press (Ebook): 9781615998470

Release date

Ebook: 15 March 2025