After Words—like the poet's previous collection, First Words—is both memoir and elegy, but the losses are more apparent in this volume, as the poet knowingly celebrates lives that have ended and things that have nearly disappeared. The deaths of a sister, of beloved uncles, aunts, and grandparents happen in a world where the old homesteads are divided to build highways and new houses-and yet telling what it was like to live on one of those farms, to be caught in those ancient chores and rhythms, makes them lasting and beautiful.