Working the Dirt: An Anthology Book

	Preface	13
	The Farm	21
	Delta Rain	24
	Starting a Pasture	25
	Silver	27
	Topsoil	29
	The Current	30
	A Country Life	31
	Harvest	33
	Mississippi Mornings	35
	Shelter	36
	Heritage	38
	Reaper	39
	Hanging Burley	40
	Tobacco Days	41
	The Farmer	43
	The Mullins Farm	45
	Dry Lightning	48
	Because He Turned His Back	49
	Delta Farmer in a Wet Summer	50
	Kentucky Mountain Farm	53
	Steep	56
	Landlocked, Fallen, Unsung	58
	The Migrants	59
	Deserted Farm	60
	Tenantry (Polk County, Tennessee)	61
	Old Rice-Fields	64
	By the Fifth Generation	65
	Crisis	66
	Scarecrow	67
	Appalachian Landscape	68
	Sonnet: An Old-Fashioned Devil	69
	A Pastoral of the Primitives	70
	The Monday Before Thanksgiving	71
	Kudzu	73
	Somewhere Along the Way	79
	Snapshot in the Red Fields	80
	My Grandfather's Funeral	81
	Sweetbread and Wine	83
	Conrad in Twilight	84
	My Father's Curse	85
	The Gardener	86
	Laying By	87
	Gardening	88
	Sunday Keeping	89
	The Terrapin Maker	91
	Wise Enough	92
	Jonquils	95
	Morning Glory	96
	Blue Hosanna	98
	A Theory of Pole Beans	99
	December Portrait	101
	Another Valentine	103
	Granny Dean	105
	Embroidery	106
	Farm Wife	108
	Lineage	110
	The Mountain Woman	111
	My Grandmother Washes Her Feet	112
	Planting in Tuscaloosa	117
	At Jo's Funeral	119
	He Makes a House Call	120
	Before Tulips	123
	Take Me Down That Row One More Time, Green-Eyed Boy	124
	Summer Food	127
	Putting up Damson Preserves	129
	Full of the Moon	131
	Collards	132
	Farmer's Market	134
	Picking Tomatoes on Sand Mountain	136
	Storm in the Briar Patch	137
	Squashes	139
	The Onion	140
	Riddle in the Garden	141
	Going for Peaches, Fredericksburg, Texas	142
	Peaches	144
	Preserves	146
	Meditation for a Pickle Suite	148
	Root Cellar	149
	Volunteer	152
	The Flower-Hunter in the Fields	155
	Buick	156
	A Garden in Kentucky	157
	Going Home	159
	Making Our Garden	162
	Dirt	164
	Primer on Digging	166
	Compost: An Ode	168
	Buildings and Grounds	171
	Politics	174
	Lazy Gardener	175
	The Mower	176
	Letting the Garden Go	177
	In the Yard, Late Summer	179
	Crepe Myrtle	181
	Late Summer	182
	A Sort of Adagio	183
	The Garden	185
	After Gardening	186
	A Charleston Garden	188
	Gift	189
	Preservation of Life	190
	Basil	192
	The Sadness of Gardens	193
	Cleaning the Shed	194
	Transplanted	196
	Finding the Tattooed Lady in the Garden	198
	Index of Authors and Poem Titles	200
	Acknowledgments	204