Joe Wilkins' Pastoral, 1994 calls compellingly into the lyric quietness, labor, and rituals of the rural West and its communities, bringing readers close to the earth, to the ditches, to the "flowery stink of alfalfa / hot breath of wheat." Enfolding its reader in a living, breathing landscape, this collection tenderly approaches the lives--of humans, of sheep, of cottonwood, and barn owl--that collide and entangle with each other. With a gentle yet appraising regard for the richly layered concepts of childhood and masculinity, Pastoral, 1994 leans in and listens to the prairie and those living there.