Shepherd Singing Ragtime, and Other Poems

A collection of lyric poems shifts between pastoral scenes, domestic intimacy, and modern rhythms, often pairing rustic imagery—sheep, sycamores, farms—with musical motifs and songlike refrains. Several pieces assume elegiac tones, reflecting on loss and the aftermath of war, while others celebrate family life, work, and seasonal change. Voices vary from playful counting and ragtime-inflected verse to somber meditations on courage, peace, and memory. Through plain language and recurring natural details the poems juxtapose tradition and contemporary touches, assembling a mosaic of rural tenderness, communal ritual, and quiet moral reflection.