{"product_id":"carrying-water-to-the-field-9781496216366","title":"Carrying Water to the Field","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoyce Sutphen’s evocations of life on a small farm, coming of age in the late 1960s, and traveling and searching for balance in a very modern world are both deeply personal and familiar. Readers from Maine to Minnesota and beyond will recognize themselves, their parents, aunts and uncles, and neighbors in these poems, which move us from delight in keen description toward something like wisdom or solace in the things of this world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In addition to poems selected from the last twenty-five years, \u003ci\u003eCarrying Water to the Field\u003c\/i\u003e includes more than forty new poems on the themes of luck, hard work, and the ravages of time—erasures that Sutphen attempts to ameliorate with her careful attention to language and lyrical precision.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Precise in the language of everyday, rich in wisdom and maturity, Joyce Sutphen's newest collection, her eighth, speaks to her comfort with farm life, travel, aging, the distortions of memory.\"—Matt Sutherland, \u003ci\u003eForeword Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Representing nearly a quarter-century of published work, \u003ci\u003eCarrying Water to the Field\u003c\/i\u003e attests to Joyce Sutphen's accomplishment as a lyric poet dedicated to clarity and concision. . . . The reader can dip in, selecting one perfectly crafted poem at a time and relish the weight and feel of each in their palm.\"—Elizabeth Hoover, (Minneapolis) \u003ci\u003eStar Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Perhaps you are interested in a poet’s journey, or the story of a family, the value of meaningful work, the beauty of things well-crafted, or the muscle and music of words. Perhaps the Heartland as a place intrigues you, or maybe you are fascinated by the places the heart will take us. If any of these things matters to you, then no matter how you choose to read \u003ci\u003eCarrying Water to the Fields, \u003c\/i\u003eyou’re likely to find rewards.\"—Tracy Rittmueller, \u003ci\u003eLyricality\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“How rare to see lyric tenderness sustained over years with no stumble into sentimentality. This remarkable collection wields a keen blade of attention, a nonchalant elegance. The reigning landscape is the Minnesota family farm of Joyce Sutphen’s girlhood, a world lost not only to her but to America. The mind at work here is not nostalgic, but piercing, acute. The city of her adulthood, her travels (especially to Ireland), and the tally of enduring and broken relationships form a faithful history of our raucous times. Chekhov comes inevitably to mind, with his remorseless stories set in the dustscapes of the Russian provinces. No regionalist, he. Joyce Sutphen is our Chekhov, only in poems.”—Patricia Hampl, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Art of the Wasted Day\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The writing in \u003ci\u003eCarrying Water to the Fiel\u003c\/i\u003ed is faultless: the language is limpid and accurate, the choreography is unerring, the forms are balanced and satisfying. And even more satisfying is the fact that this brilliant technique justifies and is justified by the truth value of these poems, which usher us into the reality of time, change, loss, and memory’s belated and beautiful insights.”—Vijay Seshadri, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of \u003ci\u003eThree Sections: Poems\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It is poetry that Joyce Sutphen finds in owls, marshes, tractors, harrows and mason jars: just as (amid the urgent matter of contemporary existence, literary life, love, and human frailty) she shows us the very heart and soul of her working, rooted prairie people, as shy of being caught in a poem as they once were reluctant to be photographed, but perfectly captured for us in this sweeping account of life that is both specific and universal. A stunning collection of poems.”—Anne-Marie Fyfe, author of\u003ci\u003e The House of Small Absences\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments    \u003cbr\u003e Introduction by Ted Kooser    \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Selections from Straight Out of View\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStraight Out of View    \u003cbr\u003e The Farm    \u003cbr\u003e Tornado Warning    \u003cbr\u003e Feeding the New Calf    \u003cbr\u003e My Father Comes to the City    \u003cbr\u003e St. Joe, the Angelus    \u003cbr\u003e In Black    \u003cbr\u003e From Out the Cave    \u003cbr\u003e Great Salt Lake    \u003cbr\u003e Holland Park at Dusk    \u003cbr\u003e Riding East to Dover    \u003cbr\u003e Reading Sylvia Plath in London    \u003cbr\u003e Edgar’s Dream    \u003cbr\u003e Death Becomes Me    \u003cbr\u003e Suppose Death Comes Like This    \u003cbr\u003e What You Wanted    \u003cbr\u003e A Kind of Deliverance    \u003cbr\u003e In Quest of Agates    \u003cbr\u003e Living in the Body    \u003cbr\u003e Crossroads    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelections from Coming Back to the Body\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHomesteading    \u003cbr\u003e Comforts of the Sun    \u003cbr\u003e Girl on a Tractor    \u003cbr\u003e A Poem with My Mother in It    \u003cbr\u003e Apple Season    \u003cbr\u003e Fields in Late October    \u003cbr\u003e Casino        \u003cbr\u003e Of Virtue    \u003cbr\u003e The Silence Says    \u003cbr\u003e A Kind of Villanelle    \u003cbr\u003e Her Legendary Head    \u003cbr\u003e Not for Burning    \u003cbr\u003e The Temptation to Invent    \u003cbr\u003e Bookmobile    \u003cbr\u003e Rodin on Film    \u003cbr\u003e Arrangement in Grey and Black    \u003cbr\u003e What the Heart Cannot Forget    \u003cbr\u003e Older, Younger, Both    \u003cbr\u003e Coming Back to the Body    \u003cbr\u003e Into Thin Air    \u003cbr\u003e The Assumption    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelections from Naming the Stars\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNaming the Stars    \u003cbr\u003e Raku Songs    \u003cbr\u003e How We Ended Up Together    \u003cbr\u003e The Problem Was    \u003cbr\u003e Losing Touch    \u003cbr\u003e Polaroid # 2    \u003cbr\u003e Ever After    \u003cbr\u003e The Sound of No One Calling    \u003cbr\u003e Aisle and View    \u003cbr\u003e The Apostate’s Creed    \u003cbr\u003e Empty        \u003cbr\u003e What Comes After    \u003cbr\u003e In the Wake    \u003cbr\u003e This Body    \u003cbr\u003e Now That Anything Could Happen    \u003cbr\u003e What to Pack    \u003cbr\u003e Getting the Machine    \u003cbr\u003e Some Glad Morning    \u003cbr\u003e At the Moment    \u003cbr\u003e Now, Finally, a Love Song    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelections from First Words\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst Words    \u003cbr\u003e The Body I Once Lived In    \u003cbr\u003e My Legendary Father    \u003cbr\u003e The Kingdom of Summer    \u003cbr\u003e The Aunts    \u003cbr\u003e My Luck    \u003cbr\u003e Just for the Record    \u003cbr\u003e Bringing in the Hay    \u003cbr\u003e My Dog, Pal    \u003cbr\u003e Harrow    \u003cbr\u003e The Oat Binder    \u003cbr\u003e “H”         \u003cbr\u003e What Every Girl Wants    \u003cbr\u003e The First Child    \u003cbr\u003e My Brother’s Hat    \u003cbr\u003e These Few Precepts    \u003cbr\u003e In Vermeer’s Painting    \u003cbr\u003e Things You Didn’t Put on Your Résumé    \u003cbr\u003e How to Listen    \u003cbr\u003e The Last Things I’ll Remember    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelections from After Words\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Dream of Empty Fields    \u003cbr\u003e Taking Stock    \u003cbr\u003e The Scythe    \u003cbr\u003e “Perfect Weather for Hanging Wash”     \u003cbr\u003e My Mother’s Secret Life    \u003cbr\u003e The Exam    \u003cbr\u003e Grandma Clara    \u003cbr\u003e September Afternoon, Writing    \u003cbr\u003e My Grandmother Sells Her Strawberry Field    \u003cbr\u003e The Queen of Summer Lawns    \u003cbr\u003e My Sister’s School Papers    \u003cbr\u003e Two Girls on a Hayrack    \u003cbr\u003e The Blue in the Distance    \u003cbr\u003e Things I Know    \u003cbr\u003e Bell Bottom Baby    \u003cbr\u003e The Suzuki Mother    \u003cbr\u003e We Have Come This Far    \u003cbr\u003e Next Time    \u003cbr\u003e Dominoes    \u003cbr\u003e The Last Perfect Season    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelections from Modern Love \u0026amp; Other Myths\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhiteout    \u003cbr\u003e On the Shortest Days    \u003cbr\u003e Winter’s Night    \u003cbr\u003e Like That    \u003cbr\u003e It’s Amazing    \u003cbr\u003e The Hampstead Sonnets    \u003cbr\u003e Bird on a Wall in County Clare    \u003cbr\u003e The Last Straw    \u003cbr\u003e Things to Watch While You Drive    \u003cbr\u003e The Idea of Living    \u003cbr\u003e The Lost Prophecy    \u003cbr\u003e One Thousand and One Nights    \u003cbr\u003e The Poem You Said You Wouldn’t Write    \u003cbr\u003e The One Constant Thing    \u003cbr\u003e Death, Inc.     \u003cbr\u003e Even in My Time    \u003cbr\u003e The Posthumous Journey of the Soul    \u003cbr\u003e All the People I Used to Be    \u003cbr\u003e For the Evening Light    \u003cbr\u003e Say It        \u003cbr\u003e The Book of Hours    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelections from The Green House\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIrish Suite    \u003cbr\u003e A Bird in County Clare    \u003cbr\u003e A Postcard from the Burren    \u003cbr\u003e At Clonmacnoise    \u003cbr\u003e Playing the Pipes    \u003cbr\u003e This Beautiful Paper    \u003cbr\u003e Snow, Snow, Snow    \u003cbr\u003e The Sound of a Train    \u003cbr\u003e Writing Poetry    \u003cbr\u003e Why We Need Poetry    \u003cbr\u003e Reading the Notes in the Norton Anthology of Poetry    \u003cbr\u003e The Birds Walking    \u003cbr\u003e The Cardinal    \u003cbr\u003e Still Life    \u003cbr\u003e Constable Clouds    \u003cbr\u003e Bird Song, Cannon River Bottoms    \u003cbr\u003e Good        \u003cbr\u003e The Cup    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNew Poems\u003cbr\u003e I. Luck\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose Hours    \u003cbr\u003e Someone Just Like You    \u003cbr\u003e In Iowa City One Night    \u003cbr\u003e Primitive    \u003cbr\u003e Too Much Luck    \u003cbr\u003e The Signal    \u003cbr\u003e The Fortune Cookie Writer    \u003cbr\u003e Eleanor Beardsley in Paris    \u003cbr\u003e Miracles    \u003cbr\u003e Chickadees    \u003cbr\u003e At Los Alamos    \u003cbr\u003e What the Music Required    \u003cbr\u003e So Close    \u003cbr\u003e The Light Left On    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eII. Work\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Long Centuries    \u003cbr\u003e What He Doesn’t Tell Us    \u003cbr\u003e Work        \u003cbr\u003e Hoeing Potatoes with My Grandmother        \u003cbr\u003e Horseshoes with Maurice    \u003cbr\u003e More of Everything    \u003cbr\u003e My Brothers    \u003cbr\u003e My Mother Breaks Her Ankle    \u003cbr\u003e Snowmen at the Farm    \u003cbr\u003e Open        \u003cbr\u003e Because of the Sun    \u003cbr\u003e Prodigal    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIII. Again    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Last Apples    \u003cbr\u003e Autumn Again    \u003cbr\u003e Carrying Water to the Field    \u003cbr\u003e Stay        \u003cbr\u003e What We Didn’t Talk About    \u003cbr\u003e My Father, Dying    \u003cbr\u003e After You Were Gone    \u003cbr\u003e Sunday Afternoon in Early May    \u003cbr\u003e Reading Anna Swir in October    \u003cbr\u003e For the Letter Writers    \u003cbr\u003e Without    \u003cbr\u003e How I’m Doing    \u003cbr\u003e Isla, Morning    \u003cbr\u003e Your Name    \u003cbr\u003e Making Do    \u003c\/p\u003e ","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409228046679,"sku":"9781496216366","price":15.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781496216366.jpg?v=1730506044","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/carrying-water-to-the-field-9781496216366","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}