Darin Brookman's outstanding new book, Where Sagebrush Grows is a collection of his excellent poetry and the inspired art of working cowboy Brian Asher -- it's quality from cover to cover. There's an introduction by Phil Martin and Red Steagall contributed words about the artist. The book's longest poem, "The Ballad of Skeeter Boyd," is a compelling tale based on Red River legends that stays with you long after you've read its well-crafted verse.
~Margo Metegrano, CowboyPoetry.com
Where Sagebrush Grows is a collection of Darin Brookman's exceptional poetry accompanied by the inspired art of working cowboy Brian Asher. Open this book and you enter the world of cowboys, cattle and horses. It could be 1884 or 2004. These masters of their arts transport you down dusty trails that wind along cedar breaks, past weathered corrals and up sagebrush hills, and even back in time.
Brookman and his family operate a fifth-generation farm and ranch operation that straddles the Oklahoma/Texas state line. His words reflect that heritage, and read as easily as if they were spoken around the campfire, at the corral fence, or in the feed store parking lot. Throughout, Asher's detailed art complements the poet's careful observations. Every shirt wrinkle, puff of dust, and hoof's shadow is precisely rendered. It's been said that local cowboys can look at one of his pieces and identify the horses, men, and even the pasture where they are pictured working.
The theme of rural life's tenuous future is often close to the surface in the poems, served up with a reverence that goes much more deeply than the usual hackneyed laments. It is often expressed in respect and appreciation, as in "Archives," which starts:
I hope there's still some cowboys
When 3000 rolls around...
and has verses such as:
When they peruse some ancient verse
From Buck's or J. B.'s pen
I hope they savvy all about
"The stock, and earth, and men."
In "Lookin' Back," the rider remarks:
I know there must be others
Who have seen the settin' sun
But as I turn my pony home
I thanks the Lord I'm one.
Other poems honor the firm bond among men and horses. In "Tempered Souls," both are equally humbled and strengthened by Nature's force. "Boogers in the Bushes" is a vivid symphony of images and emotions that takes a spooked horse and spooked rider through a dark night's ride, full of phantoms that are vanquished for each of them in their own way, with their own sense of
"home."
The writing is often colorful. "Just Say No" is a lively litany of the dangers and downsides of day work, and in the end is about its irresistible lure. "Sally" is a ghost tale that would give you shivers even on a July day in the Panhandle. You can smell the burning hair in "Parkay," a comical poem about a branding-gone-wrong with a "pyrotechnic cow" and the starring horse who:
...ever'where he hit the ground
That heifer'd beat him there.
"The Ballad of Skeeter Boyd," is a compelling epic based on Red River legends, a cinematic saga of one cowboy's life in the 1880's. As you turn the last page of the long, finely interwoven tale, you nearly have to shake yourself back into the present.
This perfect package of a book could serve as an eloquent answer to the question: What is a cowboy? The men and horses depicted in the illustrations are timeless, and the poetry of their spirit and character remains steady over the century's span.
The introduction is by Phil Martin and Red Steagall contributed words about Brian Asher and his art. ~Margo Metegrano - CowboyPoetry.com
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