Josh Slotnick
HomeFarm
Josh Slotnick
Montana Poets Series 2 #4
Cover art by Claire Emery
Preface
Josh Slotnick has a job stopping the craziness of the world with the chicken straw of these poems and wants to get into a big conversation about it. Farming this book in patches, Josh pours himself into the earth at all hours, doing the tough work of transforming a jangly mess of words into a field plumb, straight and level.
HomeFarm is a documentary, a daily almanac of a real-world place that reflects the truth of where poetry comes from.
We hunger for the real, rare as it is now,
But we've forgotten
some of it isn't pretty
…
I hear my voice
accelerate
Craig Czury, Editor, Montana Poets Series 2,
Reading, PA
6/25/13
From the book:
Gone
You're 4, maybe 5, time zones away
So I don't say
Man
Would you move the water
from the corn to the new seed beds
could you tractor mow outside the fence
unload those wax boxes from the blue truck
Will you…
No, I can't
And you don't
pass laughter at dinner, bounce your sisters on the trampoline
stay up late with me
bantering
while the rest of our house sleeps
Yesterday, Sunday night, almost 9:00, everyone gone
I didn't stop for the day, so much as I
gave up
Dragging my ass from the barn back to the house
I saw one of our workers on the rope swing
talking on the phone
swaying
gentle pendulum arcs in the dusk
When he turned from the sun's last light
shadow stretched his stout frame long in silhouette
Your neck, your hands
your legs kicking off the ground
your name
came from my mouth
He arced back into the light and
became, recognizably, himself again
All this
work and weeds and mosquitos and mud
Lolo peak shining like platinum
fills the world
but is thin as paper
You are
right under the surface
Josh Slotnick has been fortunate for many years. He lives and farms with his family in Missoula, Montana. He also works on the University of Montana's Environmental Studies program's/Garden City Harvest PEAS farm.
Montana Poets Series 2 #4
HomeFarm is a 108 page hand-stitched paper book with spine. $16.00
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