Good Thunder, Blue Earth by Susan Stevens Chambers (2016. River Place Press. ISBN 9780990356363)
Here’s why I enjoyed this collection of poems set in America’s rural heartland:
No five a.m. eggs,
no fresh cinnamon rolls at ten.
Stay away from beef,
eat less at suppertime.
Let others do the chores.
You should think about moving to town.
(from “The Doctor’s Prescription”)
This after Grandpa Hank, the patriarch of the Carlson family farm suffers a heart attack while working the land that has sustained the Carlsons for generations. Ms. Chambers, who like me, is a judge in her vocation, clearly loves her avocation: writing strikingly poignant and succinct poetry centered around the experience of rural farming life in the present age. I am struck how this slender volume is an excellent companion to another book I am plowing through, novelist Lois Phillips Hudson’s Unrestorable Habitat: Microsoft is My Neighbor Now. The late Hudson, who taught at colleges in the Pacific Northwest but had roots on a family farm in North Dakota, left behind an assortment of essays that an organization I am affiliated with, the Rural Lit R.A.L.L.Y., (more at: http://rurallitrally.org/) has collected into Unrestorable Habitat. Reading Chambers’s poetry alongside Hudson’s lament for the loss of America’s rural heritage and love of nature (for more on Hudson, visit: http://www.loisphillipshudson.org/) is a compelling and intellectually invigorating exercise, made all the more enjoyable because Chambers, in addition to being an excellent poet, is also a fine narrator and storyteller. Her gift to the reader is the ability to take scenes, actions, and thoughts that might require dozens of paragraphs or pages to depict in prose, and render them sharply and crisply as stanzas of poetic lyricism. Loosely configured to follow seasonal life on a family farm, where joy and tragedy can be found in microcosmic equal measure, Chambers is a gifted wordsmith whose work should be read by all. Truly a stellar little gem of a book.
Peace.
Mark
5 stars out of 5.
Where can I buy this book? I was recently talking to one of the founders of The Prairie Enthusiasts and he recommended the book. Actually, I would also like to send a copy to a friend who just married an Illinois farmer.
Susan, the poet’s, email is: [email protected]. At least, that’s what I found on Google. Any bookstore should be able to order it if it’s still in print. Last resort, Amazon.com. Happy reading!
Mark