Hogs and Personals: Poems

by Leo Dangel

"Leo Dangel finds language for poetry where almost no one else thinks to look or in cold barns, fields where work is being done, farm magazines, the noises of cows and pigs, the sexual longings of awkward farm boys, and tthe secret passions of elderly farm women. He finds images in plain life and plain language, and writes them down with love, tenderness, and humor. Like Walt Whitman, he refuses to believe that anything is ordinary if you pay attention to it. I mean high praise by saying that Leo Dangel's poems disarm the ordinary American mistrust of poetry. Even a practical farmer could say; if that's poetry, I believe it, and take delight in it. So will you." - Bill Holm ”Leo Dangel makes splendid poetry of all the familiar covenants of farm a wife's mind on her second honeymoon; the unseen violence in a widow's loss. But he does more; he creates visions from private why a man won't wear a lilac shirt to church, but can't leave it in the closet; testimonies at a funeral; a horse's dream." - Linda Hasselstrom "Dangel’s poems open our hearts and eyes to ordinary people and places. Without being tricky or trendy, the poems are alive with surprising twists and casual discoveries of the mysteries, fears and subdued yeamings of little people. The unnoticed rise to quiet stardom. You'll find this book easy to read—and hard to forget." - Jim Heynen "I've spent more than thirty years trying to write about the countryside that Leo Dangel and I have always shared, but never have I been able to get inside my neighbors’ hearts in the way Leo does, and does with such ease and grace. These poems are warm and generous and perfectly formed to the mouths of the people who speak them." - Ted Kooser

80 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1992