Poems of the American West

In this provocative and thoughtful anthology, many voices join in illuminating the remarkably vast and varied American West. The verse collected here ranges from American Indian tribal poems to old folk songs like The Streets of Laredo, from country-western lyrics to the work of such foreign poets as Bertolt Brecht and Zbigniew Herbert. Here is the West in all its rich varietythe harsh life of farms and ranches; mans destructive invasion into forest and desert solitudes; the bars and bistros of San Francisco and Hollywood; Pacific surf and endless highways; the ghost towns, the poverty, and the legendary world of cowpunchers and gunslingers.

From Robert Frosts Once by the Pacific to Charles Bukowskis Vegas, from Fred Kollers Lone Star State of Mind to Thom Gunns San Francisco Streetsthe West is evoked in all its incarnations, both actual and mythic.

A richly diverse collection of poetry celebrates the American West in an anthology that includes folk songs, Native American poems, country-western lyrics, and poems by American and foreign authors on the Old West, featuring such works as Robert Frost's "Once by the Pacific," "Vegas" by Charles Bukowski, and Nanci Griffith's "Lone Star State of Mind." 35,000 first printing.