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Here's a review that appeared in the
BC Cowboy Heritage Society Newsletter!
"From Cowboy's Office Window"
A New Book by Tom King
A collection of not too serious Cowboy Poetry
Illustrations mostly by Ben Crane with lotsa help from Eldon Walls
Anyone that frequents this website and reads any of the Cowboy Poetry should be pretty
familiar with Tom King! I get a lot of poems sent to me and I have to sort out the
culls, ship them out (usually to the trash can) and keep the good ones to use as
replacements. I can't think of a single one, that was sent in by Tom, that didn't
make it into our program! There are only a couple of cowboy poets out there that I
can truly say that about. I just seem to like everything that Tom sends in! It didn't
surprise me a bit to hear that he had put together a book...
Now I know that a lot of Tom's most recent poems were done in conjunction with a cartoon
by Eldon Walls - some inspired by the cartoon and some inspired the cartoon, so I
figured that he'd have
some of his work in this new book! But then I heard that Ben
Crane was involved as well - well can you imagine! The humour of Tom, Eldon, and Ben -
all inside one cover? It's great - a super read - a little bit here and there is
serious but the majority goes right along the lines of a cartoon!
Now I play at a little cowboy poetry once in a while myself -
Problem is, I don't have the time, and usually I can't make it rhyme!
So to me when I see a poem that rhymes all over the place - middle and end of first
line - last word on line 3 and 4 and last line of lines 2 and 5 then I figure it was
written by a pretty talented poet! Here's an example - I'll only give you one verse so
you'll have to ask Tom for the rest.
Mistake number one was when I begun
puttin' pride before good common sense!
Mistake number two
was stickin' like glue
when an all out wreck would commence!
That is a verse out of a poem called "Cowboy Pride?" and the whole poem is rhymed the
same way. Not only is the rhyming exceptional but the poem itself tells a great
story!
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