Red Colt Canyon

by Laurie Wagner Buyer

A new collection of poems by acclaimed western writer Laurie Wagner Buyer. Including her award winning Poem "Until I run out of thread." This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965612686
• ISBN13: 9780965612685
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Music Mountain Press
• Length: 77 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

It does'nt get much better than this!

"The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes." -W. Somerset Maugham.Every time I read this quote I think of Laurie Wagner Buyer, a special poet from Fairplay, CO. If you have not read any of her previous works, some of which are out of print, and would like to be introduced to some "beauty and delicacy," you are in luck. Red Colt Canyon is Buyer's fourth book of poetry and it is a keeper. Buyer and her husband work a cow-calf operation near Fairplay, CO. She not only understands ranching but has a keen eye for the natural beauty that seems to become all the more awesome under her watchful eyes. Her observations about personal relationships cut to the bone and will leave you with a myriad of feelings. The book is divided into three segments. The first, "Heartwood," is a chronicle of ranching life and the trials experienced by a husband and wife as they work together to survive both economically and spiritually. It has not been easy as noted in "That First Summer." "We cooked out of cans and boxes, grew grungy and tough, set out markers on the land and on our hearts, never knowing that nine years later we would still be fixing broken dreams and busted wires." Included in this section is Buyer's award winning poem "Until I Run Out of Thread," which is simply a wonderful example of the beauty and delicacy admired by Somerset Maugham. It alone is worth the price of the book. The second segment, "Unrumbled Thunder," confirms Buyer's acute awareness of, and appreciation for,nature. She writes of the wonders of the river and cottontail rabbits with "such small elegance," a Killdeer's rapid voice in the morning, and a multitude of other natural forces that she summarizes in "These Things of the Earth" as "These simple, ordinary, everyday, miraculous things of the earth." In all, there are 21 poems in this segment incluling "Early Winter Walk" which is a special tribute to Buyer's sensitivty to nature. The final segment, "Women on the Bridge," is a collection written mostly for specific individuals. They celebrate and try to explain women's life on western ranches. Two have stayed with me for nights,"Letters" and "There Were No Women." If you have ever wondered how it is living on an isolated ranch, I'm talking about the real thing, then take a look at these poems. Buyer has written a striking, tough, gentle, no nonsense collection that will stand the test of time. W. Somerset Maugham would have approved.