Greg Galbraith on his book, Germinations 2.0.
There are many damn good poets that claim to be farmers. Greg Galbraith is a damn good farmer who claims to be a poet, artist, and essayist. Decide for yourself, but before perusing Germinations 2.0 make sure your tetanus vaccine is up to date and your leather gloves are handy when you sift through the rubble of barbed wire, cogs, pintle chains, and cast off tractor transmissions of his poems, essays, epigrams, and illustrations located on the granite stones he uses for the pages of his book.
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Germinations –a wonderfully apt title for a first book of excellent poetry. There is a quiet Zen quality to these wise, witty, whimsical, rich poems nourished in the fertile landscapes of the Northern Midwest. Here the bird calls, movement of the seasons, the night sky, the labor, and the ambiguity of it all will germinate reflection. Undergirding this is the voice of a mature, assured, skilled poet. The very title Germinations, we hope, signals many more fine books to come by Greg Galbraith.
MARY SUE KOEPPEL
Author of Between the Bones,
Poems coeditor of No One’s Easy Daughter
(Imago Press 2017)
BIO
After graduating with a degree in Dairy Science from the University of Illinois in 1981, Greg Galbraith was the Assistant Manager on two farms before buying his own farm in eastern Marathon County Wisconsin, where his ancestors began farming in 1890. Together with his wife Wendy they owned and operated a 120 cow grazing based dairy farm and eventually became certified organic producers.
Greg's interests are varied and have resulted in an extensive collection of photography, journaled writing, a collection of poems published in 2017 titled Germinations, and several hand built guitars. In November of 2017 he began column writing for Wisconsin's largest agricultural newspaper, Agri-View. His column, From the Tractor Cab, where he shared observations about rural living and dairy farming evolved when he sold his farm to a young couple that continue to operate a grass-based organic dairy farm. He then changed his column to From the Woodlot and that has since changed to From the Back Paddock. His emphasis is grass-based agriculture and its wide range of benefits to the air, water, and human health, and its potential for enhanced rural community development. In addition to contributing to Agri-View Greg is involved in a project creating podcasts for the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship.
CONTACT
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