Forward by William Kloefkorn: These new poems reveal Jim Brummels at his best, and that is damned good indeed. They are at times bawdy, at times humorous, at times philosophical, but always refreshingly well-sustained. Time and again they suggest that the poet understands and accepts that animal and human existence often parallel each other, each adjusting, adapting, doing whatever must be done to sustain its life. I d say that at heart Brummels is a rancher, and he is; but at heart he is also a gypsy who cannot resist the urge to go beyond that place he has sunk his roots so deeply into to find where / in the journey / the adventure is. And I d add that he is a clear-eyed realist, and a teacher, one who lives not only in the classroom and on the land, but who is likewise of them. Alongside his students he is a learner, and the boots he wears more often than not have manure on them. His language derives from both the muck and the sweet clover he walks through. Mare heat. Milk-mild. Pigeyes. Wracked cowlot fences. When the drought finally breaks, he stands outside tasting the rain: My tongue swelled with it, / and my lips moved as if to nurse. And finally, at heart, Brummels is all heart, which means that in this dense history of evolution he does not neglect or forget those friends who suddenly disappear into the timeless maw of death. I stand in weather atop my world. / The moon showers me with generous light. / In the distance the city my friend left behind / sends its industrial glare into the sky. The friend is quietly and eloquently remembered. He is one of many stories of grass, one who has sprouted and grown and turned from green to brown and, when the time seemed right, reappeared, thanks to a poet who cares enough to make the miracle happen.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Jim Brummels has his lip back.  This book shows how he s found adventure in his journey, describing it in such plain talk it s downright lyrical. Take a bite out of your pigmeat sandwich and listen to the barn swallows sneezing and excusing themselves.  Although Brummels knows his way around a tack room, he acknowledges the security of academic tenure even as he scuffs his boots down its halls. And while he can evoke the heartbreak of a hardscrabble life and can sing the praises of a night under a rural moon, he s clear-eyed enough to look at himself and write, I can t believe how full of it I am.  It s a relief to read such refreshing poetry from Nebraska, the Great Plains, the Earth. --Kathleene West
The sonorous essence of rural America, Jim Brummels storytelling voice elucidates, once and for all, that the wild/geography we long to learn always lies just within.  And if we re fortunate enough to locate it, like, say, finding dynamite by match-light in the shed, we ll realize that it s comprised of an almost infinite diversity of landscapes and landmarks. Book of Grass (call it cowboy poetry and/or call it cosmos poetry ) guides us, movesus, physically, emotionally, spiritually east, west, north, south, outward and, especially within through country we ve seldom, if ever, covered. In short, we re talking the gospel of unfenced ground, of the wireless wide-open. Jim s poems speak truth into all lives, into all deaths, into every deep belief in the hereafter. --Paul Zarzyski
The sonorous essence of rural America, Jim Brummels storytelling voice elucidates, once and for all, that the wild/geography we long to learn always lies just within.  And if we re fortunate enough to locate it, like, say, finding dynamite by match-light in the shed, we ll realize that it s comprised of an almost infinite diversity of landscapes and landmarks. Book of Grass (call it cowboy poetry and/or call it cosmos poetry ) guides us, movesus, physically, emotionally, spiritually east, west, north, south, outward and, especially within through country we ve seldom, if ever, covered. In short, we re talking the gospel of unfenced ground, of the wireless wide-open. Jim s poems speak truth into all lives, into all deaths, into every deep belief in the hereafter. --Paul Zarzyski
The sonorous essence of rural America, Jim Brummels storytelling voice elucidates, once and for all, that the wild/geography we long to learn always lies just within.  And if we re fortunate enough to locate it, like, say, finding dynamite by match-light in the shed, we ll realize that it s comprised of an almost infinite diversity of landscapes and landmarks. Book of Grass (call it cowboy poetry and/or call it cosmos poetry ) guides us, movesus, physically, emotionally, spiritually east, west, north, south, outward and, especially within through country we ve seldom, if ever, covered. In short, we re talking the gospel of unfenced ground, of the wireless wide-open. Jim s poems speak truth into all lives, into all deaths, into every deep belief in the hereafter. --Paul Zarzyski
The sonorous essence of rural America, Jim Brummels storytelling voice elucidates, once and for all, that the wild/geography we long to learn always lies just within.  And if we re fortunate enough to locate it, like, say, finding dynamite by match-light in the shed, we ll realize that it s comprised of an almost infinite diversity of landscapes and landmarks. Book of Grass (call it cowboy poetry and/or call it cosmos poetry ) guides us, movesus, physically, emotionally, spiritually east, west, north, south, outward and, especially within through country we ve seldom, if ever, covered. In short, we re talking the gospel of unfenced ground, of the wireless wide-open. Jim s poems speak truth into all lives, into all deaths, into every deep belief in the hereafter. --Paul Zarzyski
About the Author
JV Brummels is an instructor teaching literature, poetry, and fiction at a state college located in northeast Nebraska
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