The blood truck, and 53 other poems

This book’s title poem, "The Blood Truck," uses an accident involving a truck of animal blood from a slaughter house as an entry point into a history of "bloody Kansas" in the 19th Century, focusing on the roles of John Brown and Quantrell’s murderous “Bushwackers." It includes 52 other poems in a largely traditional style, but with a modern sensibility.

The author provides a dozen full-page, very detailed line drawings illustrating his poems, plus others of half a page, as well as dozens of small drawings relating to aspects of the poems. Most of these poems (with a few notable exceptions) are about the author’s lifetime in Wisconsin, portraying both the people and the natural and manmade environment of the state.

A notable poem (beautifully illustrated) is about a “Rural Wisconsin Auto Junkyard.” Another deals with a church graveyard, “Where the Dead Lie Swimming Under Stones.” Another finds deep lessons in a boy’s discovery of “A Sheep Skeleton.”