Wisconsin man's poetry defines raw emotion of dairy farming BARRY ADAMS, Wisconsin State Journal July 25, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail There is talk of family and friends, chores at dawn, walks along a creek. Daniel Smith’s poetry also tells the stories of the physical and emotional pain of farming, a profession, lifestyle and calling he gave up in 2008. Only the pages of his new book, “Ancestral,” go beyond his own personal experiences of financial strife, a wrecked shoulder and grown children who have chosen other paths. Smith sold off his dairy herd, moved off land owned for decades by his family and began anew.