A collaboration brimming with life, love, and the passion of the strongest roughnecks

books:

	• All This Way for the Short Ride: Roughstock Sonnets 1971-1996 : Poems Paul Zarzyski, Barbara Van Cleve Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996 - 112 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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To find that part of each of us that wanted to be a cowboy

I took my wife on a whirlwind vacation of Montana in 1996. One of our stops was the annual Cowboy Poetry Reading in Lewistown. Paul was there to recite "Rosined-Up-'n'-Itchin'-to-Git" and "Monte Carlo Express-Box 258, 15.3 Miles Home." Afterwards I had the great pleasure of meeting him and shaking his hand. I was so impressed by his ability to describe his feelings for the West and for his own personal experiences that I wanted to read more, and was able to find copies of his Roughstock Sonnets and I Am Not A Cowboy. Everything about this man tells you what it's like to live life to the fullest, from the bare-back of a bucking horse. Thank God there are still cowboys among us.

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Zarzyski's poems are a journey through the cowboy soul.

Zarzyski is the perfect guide to take us on a journey through the cowboy life - his heart and his soul. But these poems aren't just for cowfolk, horsefolk, and rodeo lovers. "All This Way..." contains some of the most poignant, soul-touching lyrics. The poems seem rough, but once the reader catches the rhythm, it's a beautiful ride! Van Cleve's photos, honest and real, set Zarzyski's works off perfectly. If you are a horse/cow person or just a lover of fine poetry, please experience "All This Way for the Short Ride"! You will be greatly rewarded.

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A collaboration brimming with life, love, and the passion of the strongest roughnecks

All This Way for the Short Ride: Roughstock Sonnets is a rollicking blend of poetry and action-packed, black-and-white photographs celebrating the American West, the ranch way of life, and especially rodeo culture. Written in the continued spirit of the original "Roughneck Sonnets", All This Way for the Short Ride pays especial tribute to the brave men and women who dare to ride fiercely bucking broncos for as many seconds as they can. A collaboration brimming with life, love, and the passion of the strongest roughnecks, highly recommended for western and rodeo fans. " The Night the Devil Danced on Me": A werewolf moon glares / from the top row of the bleachers, horned / owl with one eye plucked. In the black hole / of chute 8, Lonewolf waits - / an ugly bronc, mustang and rank, / the cowboys say, with notched right ear / and snaky, suck-back ways.

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8-second poet . . .

This is an entertaining and moving collection of 32 poems by Montana poet Paul Zarzyski, who belongs to that rarified fraternity of rodeo cowboy poets. The intensity and focus required for riding roughstock are transferred into these highly charged poems, and most of them have the headlong intensity of a high-scoring 8-second ride.

Some of my favorite Zarzyski poems are included in this collection: "Buck," a Christmas-time lament for a dead horse; "To Wallace," a tribute to rancher-poet Wallace McRae; "Partner," about the fierce and loving bond between two rodeo friends, dedicated to Montana writer, Kim Zupan; "Monte Carlo Express - Box 258, 15.3 Miles Home," about reading mail while driving a speeding car; and the high-spirited "Escorting Granny to the Potluck Rocky Mountain Oyster Feed at Bowman's Corner." The best, of course, is the title poem, "All This Way for the Short Ride," about the death of another rider.

There's an appreciative foreword by Wyoming-born western writer, Teresa Jordan, and 27 wonderful black-and-white rodeo photographs by Montana photographer Barbara Van Cleve, taken between the years 1971-1996. An excellent addition to any bookshelf of Western literature.

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The author includes over 30 poems culled from the last 25 years which truly showcase his life and soul, a soul that was kidnapped by rodeo and stolen by poetry. His poems and the accompanying photographs by Barbara Van Cleve capture the grit of the rodeo style.