"Turpin is a poet of unusual gifts. . . a meditative and social poet whose real subject is the connection between one person and another—sometimes, between one person and all others. His material is not local color, but the universal, and the building trades are presented not as exotic but for their likeness to the rest of life."—Robert Pinsky
"This work is so fundamentally substantial and pleasurable that it feels, to me, like an anthem."—Tony Hoagland
Mark Turpin has made his living for the past twenty-five years as a carpenter and construction worker, and his debut collection offers a rare and profound view of manual labor’s laconic, and largely male, world. He lives in San Francisco.
| Acknowledgments | 9 | |
| Laborer's Code | 13 | |
| The Box | 14 | |
| Last Hired | 15 | |
| Pickwork | 17 | |
| Shithouse | 19 | |
| Poem | 20 | |
| Hammer | 21 | |
| Sonnet | 23 | |
| Don Fargo & Sons | 24 | |
| The Man Who Built This House | 26 | |
| Carpenter | 29 | |
| Waiting for Lumber | 31 | |
| A Carpenter's Body | 33 | |
| Millet's Shepherdess with her Flock | 37 | |
| Photograph From Antietam | 39 | |
| Will Turpin b. 1987 | 43 | |
| In Winter | 44 | |
| Aubade | 46 | |
| The Furrow | 47 | |
| The Day | 48 | |
| Sledgehammer's Song | 51 | |
| Finish Work (after Hardy) | 53 | |
| Gene Lance | 54 | |
| Before Groundbreak | 55 | |
| Setting Up | 59 | |
| The World of Things | 60 | |
| Jobsite Wind | 61 | |
| Nailer | 63 | |
| Downslope | 66 | |
| Foundation | 68 | |
| The Aftermath | 69 | |
| Everything Under The Sun | 71 | |
| Muse | 74 | |
| The Author | 77 |
Overview
"Turpin is a poet of unusual gifts. . . a meditative and social poet whose real subject is the connection between one person and another—sometimes, between one person and all others. His material is not local color, but the universal, and the building trades are presented not as exotic but for their likeness to the rest of life."—Robert Pinsky
"This work is so fundamentally substantial and pleasurable that it feels, to me, like an anthem."—Tony Hoagland
Mark Turpin has made his living for the past twenty-five ...