From the Back Cover:

The America many people would like to believe in is convincingly expressed in this fourth volume of poems by a writer close to the heart of things. The sanity and eloquence of these poems spring from the land in Kentucky where Wendell Berry was born, married, lives, farms, writes, and teaches. From classical pastoral themes both lyrical and reflective, to a verse play, to a dramatic narrative and the manic, entertaining, prescient ravings of Berry's Mad Farmer, these poems show the unity of language and consciousness, the skill and sensitivity, that have placed Wendell Berry at the front rank of contemporary American poets.

"Farming: A Handbook is poetry of deep natural freshness and love, witness of hope in a dark time. Few contemporary books have so moved me." Millen Brand

Jacket Design by Bob Silverman. 118 pages.

Contents:

I.
The Man Born to Farming
The Stones
The Supplanting
Sowing
The Familiar
The Farmer among the Tombs
For the Rebuilding of a House
The Springs
Water
Rain
Sleep
To Know the Dark
Winter Poem for Mary
Winter Nightfall
February 2, 1968
March 22, 1968
The Morning's News
Enriching the Earth
A Wet Time
The Silence
In This World
The New Roof
A Praise
On the Hill Late at Night
The Barn
The Buidings
The Seeds
The Wish to Be Generous
Air and Fire
The Lilies
Independence Day

II.
A Standing Ground
Song in the Year of Catastrophe
The Current
The Mad Farmer Revolution
The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer
The Farmer and the Sea
Earth and Fire
The Mad Farmer in the City
The Birth (Near Port William)
Awake at Night
Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer
The Satisfactions of the Mad Farmer

III.
The Bringer of Water

IV.
A Letter
Meditation in the Spring Rain
A Failure
The Grandmother
The Illumination of the Kentucky Mountain Craftsman
The Wages of History
The Heron
September 2, 1969
The Farmer, Speaking of Monuments
The Sorrel Filly
To the Unseeable Animal

Links

Poems from Farming: A Handbook

"The Wish to be Generous" (rjgeib.com)

"The Wish to be Generous" (cla.calpoly.edu)