Customer Reviews

Croutons on a Cow Pie #2 (Volume II)

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Baxter Black has a wonderful mastery of the English language, to hilarious effect. This book has classics such as "Ugly for Hire", "The Cowboy and His Date" and of course, "Croutons on a Cow Pie". Bax puts the cowboy life into lyrical, perfectly crafted snapshots for people to see the heart of the West and the people who live and work there. Get it, read it, love it.

Great book -- the kind that you like to sit in front of a fire and enjoy slowly... Baxter Black is tremendous -- first heard him on National Public Radio and didn't have a clue that he wrote Cowboy Poetry.. Note, if your'e a real cowboy -- someone who's done Rodeo in the chutes (not spectating), ranched, roped then you'll REALLY enjoy the book cause the humor is sharp and dead on target... Good poems about Roping, hiring onto an outfit, you-name-it... Black calls himself a "cattle feeder" and a 'sorry team roper' -- if you know what either of these mean, then do yourself a favor an order the book now... My favorite is the $35 rope poem about team roping -- how you get started with a $35 rope and end up spending $15,000 on your 'team roping' hobby...

This nice large book may not be the stuff that you typically find on coffee tables, but it deserves to be. Mr. Black's stories and thoughts are snippets of life that lend themselves to being read more than once versus shelved away. They are short enough to read in a few minutes and could just become one of your "daily devotions".

I like poetry; poetry of all kinds really, but I must admit to you that Cow-Boy Poetry has been a favorite of mine for several years now and Baxter Black leads the list of my favorite cow-boy poets.

This is volume two and follows his initial work that became the best selling book of all times in this particular genre. Black is a man who started writing poetry when he was in his thirties. He was a veterinarian and finally quite his profession and became a full time poet. If you have never listened to him read his own work then you are missing out on a true treat.

This oversized volume contains over 100 pieces of his work and includes 40 poems that have never been published before. Each poem is accompanied by a wonderful black and white ink drawing by Bob Black, Don Gill, David Holl and Charlie Marsh, four of the best western illustrators in the business. Each illustration covers an entire page and I will be truthful with you, even if you dropped Black's work from this volume, the art work alone would be worth the price of the book.

Baxter Black uses as his subject the American Cowboy; not the movie cowboys that we see in the movies and on T.V., but rather the real thing...the working cowboy and all of his trials and tribulations. Most of the poems in this book have a funny side to them but Black has a subtle and dry sense of humor which is filled with wisdom and he has the ability, the eye and a very dry sense of humor which allows him to see through a brick wall and peer into the heart of a situation.

Now these are fun poems; some profound, some witty, some nostalgic...but never underestimate this author. There is an element sophistication behind his work which he skillfully hides, but it is never-the-less lurking there.

Anyway, get a copy of this work if you like cowboy poetry. If you don't like cowboy poetry, get a copy and read it anyway...you never know, you might just like this stuff.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks