Because people that serve as park rangers or carnival workers or welders are not supposed to appreciate or write poetry. Correct? As someone raised on the blue-collar side of the fence, who has worked in similar lines, the blurb stuck in my craw. Her book did not need the embellishment, the literary EOP at the front door. I can only hope that the publisher was behind it. I want her to be better than that.

Your line about her writing “with confidence of someone who has done hard and various work” confounds me. Because how does one describe “hard work” anyway? Is being an editor or physicist any less “hard” than welding smooth joints or keeping beer balls out of the park? This whole weaving of the manual life into poetic credibility “bling” is repressive.