Publisher's Synopsis
The whole idea of writing these poems came about in the late 1990's. My dad retired after working all his years to make a better life for my mom, my brother and me. Through hard work and honesty, he brought our family from abject poverty to a middle class family with a home, a little land and a few head of cattle. His greatest joy was when he retired and was able to devote all his time to working the land and cattle. Unfortunately, shortly after he retired, he was diagnosed with cancer. As his health and stamina declined I wanted to give him something to bring him a smile. I came across a book by the great Baxter Black, who is, without a doubt, one of the great cowboy humorists of our time. His poetry brought many smiles to my dad in his latter days. After reading several of Baxter Black's poems, my dad looked at me and said, "Mike, I bet you could do this if you set your mind to it." I wrote my first poem, "THE LOTTO TICKET" based on one of the many humorous stories my dad used to tell. One such story ended with the same line as the last two lines in the poem. After he read it, he said, "See!? I told you, you could do it." This collection is done strictly for posterity. I have no illusions of grandeur of becoming a famous writer. I hope they bring a smile to your face as they did to my dad.
