Old Rags and Iron is a collection of narrative poems about the life experiences of working-class people with whom the author, R.F. McEwen, is not only acquainted but whose lives he has shared.McEwen supplemented his income as a teacher while working as a professional logger and tree trimmer, and he writes with great love and respect for blue-collar families. Set primarily in the back-of-the-yard neighborhood of South Side Chicago, where McEwen grew up, as well as Pine Ridge, South Dakota, western Nebraska, Ireland, and elsewhere, the poems celebrate many voices and stories.Utilizing tree-trimming as a central metaphor, these poems of blank verse fictions reverberate like truth.