The Farm Wife's Almanac

by Shari Wagner

As she contends with forces that threaten to uproot what she loves, the farm wife emerges as a prophetic voice from America's heartland, embracing a concept of community that includes the dead and the living, neighbors and strangers, cultivated fields and ditches thick with milkweed. "The farm wife names children after beloved cows, plays rook, and wants to be buried in a root cellar. In poem after poem we see what might appear to be a sheltered, insular life in its true and astonishing expansiveness. These are poems of both intensity and calm beauty, transformative in their vision of the holiness in the everyday." --Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Author, What Cannot Be Fixed and Poetry Editor, The Christian Century One of the closing farm wife poems, "The farm wife reviews the Tornado Theater at Menno-Hof Museum," reports that "In the rubble of Eli Yoder's house / all they found intact was a glass jug / with a carving stuck 'Fear God' / on one side-- 'God Is Love' on the other. / Eli took that as a sign of the Almighty's power, / but I believe whirling wind spins the bottle / and God is in the dark with us, / not writing down what happens next." The Shari Wagner was Indiana Poet Laureate 2016-2017 and is author of two books of The Harmonist at Poems of Indiana and Evening Chore. Her poems have appeared in many magazines, including North American Review, Shenandoah, The Christian Century, The Writer's Almanac, and American Life in Poetry . She has taught creative writing in elementary schools, high schools, colleges, community centers, libraries, and nursing homes. She teaches for the Indiana Writers Center; Indiana University-Purdue University's Religion, Spirituality and the Arts Seminar; and Bethany Theological Seminary's graduate program in theopoetics and writing.

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2019

Reviews

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beauty of a simple life shines through these poems. It's only when the narrator turns her attention away from family, home, and church that we see how precarious their lives are.

[Lori Hershberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shari Wagner writes about her Mennonite roots, her cows, her family and more in this resonating collection of poems. Evocative, simple, homey.

[Mary Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though these poems are thoroughly rooted in the midwest and from a Mennonite POV, at times I could totally hear the voice of Mom and Dad, Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Bob and I could replace the sere plains of Eastern Colorado for the humid corn fields of Indiana.

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, I think, my favorite Shari Wagner book to date.