Earthly....earthy....down to earth. Peggy Rose Whiteneck's first poetry collection, From These Earthly Parts, is the work of a woman not only rooted in earth, but bathed in its mysteries. That strong sense of being grounded is also reflected in her philosophy of crafting poems: "I want my work to be accessible to all kinds of people and to connect deeply with the truths of their own experience - whether or not they've ever had the particular experiences described in specific poems. Maybe I'm swimming against the tide of literary opinion that assumes poetry is supposed to be esoteric and inscrutable, but I still believe a poem's first mission is to communicate - and to do so for as broad an audience as it can reach." Peggy was born in Massachusetts and raised on a farm in New Hampshire. She has lived in Maryland, Virginia, and Florida and has traveled to Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and France. She now lives and works in Vermont and calls it home."