"You can write about pigs," suggested John, the wise and unlettered neighbor of David Lee. A former seminary candidate, semi-professional baseball player, and hog farmer; Lee is the author of eight books of poetry and Utah's first Poet Laureate. The advice is well heeded, and Lee creates a collection of narratives and epic tales about pigs and farming and neighbors and community and the rural Southwest.
I like my poetry like I like my bacon (or liked it before I became a vegetarian), lean and seasoned. Lee's is that; seasoned with the direct and uncompromising impact of common talk and local vernacular, Porcine Canticles is a tribute to the hope and promise found in the everyday ordinariness of things. Fans of Wendell Berry and Flannery O'Connor will find much here to love, as Lee's writing shares that same flavor and feel. The Porcine Canticles is that rare book of poems that "reads like a good novel."
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