Connie Jordan Green has mined seventy years of steady and reverent observance of the exquisite intricacies of the daily, the absolute beauty of the mundane, the richness of earth and family, the poetry woven into the plainest of minutes. Here love is shaped by the familiar object, the common and almost invisible gesture, the sharp edges of what life hands us. From the "bins brim[ing] with onion bulbs" to "egg and sperm together...inventing mathematics" to "the wolf stretched on the hearth," Green gives order to the chaos of a "world that wants to be made perfect." In her "household inventory," Green shows how spent days drop poems like seeds in the fertile garden row of one's personal landscape. This volume is well worth the wait, its body "a receptacle filling, filling." -Darnell Arnoult, author of What Travels With Us In Household Inventory, Connie Jordan Green gives an Appalachian Book of Hours. Prevalent in medieval times, the book of hours contains daily devotionals, hymns, lauds, and prayers for changing liturgical seasons. Household Inventory sings the praises of the land and its bounty. From odes on onions and blackberries to hymns to the seasons, incantations to herbs, and lauds to the household, Green takes us into the life lived simply and well-examined. This psalm to life and creation elevates and causes us to examine and celebrate the wonders beneath our feet and all about us. -Jane Hicks, author of Driving with the Dead
About the Author: Connie Jordan Green lives on a farm in East Tennessee with her husband and two cats and two dogs. Her weekly column for the Loudon County News Herald is in its 36th year. She writes stories for young people, poetry, and novels. The novels received various awards: The War at Home was placed on the ALA List of Best Books for Young Adults, both books were selected by the New York City Library as books for the Teen Age, The War at Home was nominated to the 1991-92 Volunteer State Book Award Master List, and Emmy was selected as a Notable 1992 Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications and has won awards. She has two chapbooks from Finishing Line Press, Slow Children Playing and Regret Comes to Tea. She was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the East Tennessee Hall of Fame for Writers. She teaches for the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning (ORICL), and leads writing workshops. She and her husband have three children and seven grandchildren.