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Book of the Week: Barbwire Holds Its Ground

brooks_barbwirecover

Randy Brooks has spent his whole life in the midwest, and the rhythms and themes of farming and broad vistas informs his best work. This early chapbook (1981) is from his own HIGH/COO PRESS, predecessor to Brooks Books.

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

Do you have a chapbook published 2009 or earlier you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details.

Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Jim Kacian, following a concept first explored by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.



barbwire holds its ground Buffalo Sky roams the prairie
a kid wallows in the rain pool: cattle wait
to cross Buck Creek with wagon loads of wheat, they laid a bed of straw
late afternoon: cattle lie in billboard shade
after the Indian treaty everywhere drifts of buffalo bones
everywhere I look, a horizon far away

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Enjoyed the whole book. ‘late afternoon’ above is my favorite. It is bittersweet, civilization coming in, yet providing shade. Great imagery. Thank you for sharing.

  2. Randy Brooks handles Western themes with grit and assurance.

    hard times
    the woodpecker holes
    in the fence posts

    slow clouds drifting
    down the river valley
    cattle drive

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