William Blake wrote, “To create a little flower is the labour of ages.” Annie Woodford grows beautiful flowers through these five poems from her third book “Peasant” out September 16.

Appalachian men and women: their weathered hands, the horseshoes over their doors, and the angels that watch over them.

Two lifelong friends—one a poet, one a painter–talk about it all: labor, joy, and love; the value of slowness; the subtleties of structure; and how to “make it soft, make it low.”

No mother tongue is as rich as the Southern one. Our words are musical, and poetry expresses them with soul-shaking force. Annie Woodford celebrates the songs we say.