"Charles Goodrich's poems celebrate the body of the earth from which we come and to which all things return, as well as the power of poetry to raise its fist-full of seeds, its only weapon-against oppression. These poems share the comfort of ravens, "black wings banked around the coals of their hearts, /their bright minds/smoldering," the particular, fleeting tang of whortleberries, and the minerally kiss of cold water drawn from a well. Contemplating the uncomfortable, such as aging, the risk of tsunami, and the self-inflicted erosion of habitat and democracy, these poems nonetheless point our eyes toward the hawks, not the "hawkers of hate." This is poetry wholesome in the best sense, showing us how to preserve our wholeness and the flow of grateful energy amid the obstructions (major and minor) of our worldly lives." - Karen Holmberg These poems vividly display a reverence for the beauty of the natural world and a deep lament for its endangered status, but what makes them most interesting to me is the signature wry humor of their creator and his unique contrarian spirit. - Clemens Starck In Watering the Rhubarb , Charles Goodrich combines his knack for humor and his lyrical voice to evoke empathy for a natural world we humans live in but often do not appreciate. He has a keen ear for using sounds to evoke emotion. There are many things here we will think about long after the book has been read and placed on a shelf. - Barbara Drake In an age as coarsened as ours, we are startled by a voice so guileless, and a heart so open, as Charles Goodrich's. Read, and be restored. - John Witte Following a long career as a professional gardener and a decade as director for the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word at Oregon State University, Charles now writes and gardens at his home near the confluence of the Marys and Willamette Rivers in Corvallis, Oregon, within the traditional lands of the Ampinefu band of the Kalapuya tribe. He's the author of three previous books of poetry, A Scripture of Crows; Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden; and Insects of South Corvallis, and a collection of essays, The Practice of Home, and has co-edited two anthologies, Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest and In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens. His poems and essays have appeared in Orion, High Country News, The Sun and many other journals and anthologies.