A love song to Rural America Poor

Carolyn Chute's "School on Heart's Content Road" receives a terrific review in this week's New York Times.

And while I have a stack of books, unread, waiting impatiently to be held and treasured, this book may turn up at the top of the pile and get my attention earlier than others, also worthy, but not necessarily as topical.

What do I mean by topical?

While I am no longer in Maine, I am in another heart land of the rural poor, with disappearing farms, hardscrabble folks trying to make a living on slate embedded in soil, short growing seasons, and families living on roads named after their forebears and nothing much else in their coffers.

I started to write about it, the poor, the shrinking dairy farmer, the soil, for our local newspaper. The barns are in decay, some are being rescued, but fewer than .01%, and Dan's barn above is just being held up by his own spit and his relentless need to survive.

Photo: Dan's Barn, 2008, by Blogger