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BYU Studies Quarterly

BYU Studies Quarterly

Authors

James Goldberg

Keywords

BYU Studies, poetry, Smith family

Abstract

When the Smiths put money down on that plot of land, it was all trees. Maples and beech, wild cherry and ironwood; ash, oak, hickory, elm. The boys must’ve measured their hours by axe-stroke some days as they put their shoulders to the slow, sweaty work of clearing land. To make room for wheat, rye, and oats, for buckwheat and beans they brought down maybe six thousand trees— those towering majesties—some saplings before Columbus laid eyes on their world’s distant shore.

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