Livestock Man

by Amy Hale Auker

These poems are love stories.
Love stories to the land, to the past, to the present, to the future, to animals, to tracks in the sand, to hidden seep springs in deep canyons, to witches in the night, to wild grapes and longing, to campfires.
But more than anything, they are love stories about work.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2018

Reviews

[Jerri Lincoln · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading these poems, I had to set the book aside, close my eyes, take a deep breath, and just smile. How did the author get me to that place? I can tell you . . . she has a talent for it. This book is like balm for the soul. Read it. And you’ll see what I mean.

[Story Circle Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems from Amy Hale Auker will dispel any notions of ranch life as escape. The hard work of daily living rings through again and again. But also coming through is Auker's intimacy with nature, seen in animals, vegetation, and weather in the sweeping openness and isolation of the great outdoors. The reader opens to new awareness, to appreciation of one woman's convictions, courage, diligence.

Auker lives a life typically considered man's domain. She shares this life with her husband, and the poems reflect the experiences of both. Each poem shares a snippet of Auker's daily life, reflecting never-ending chores mixed with ever-recurring gratitude. Auker composes in her head while on horseback, somehow later wrangling time to record her encounters. Her poems are laced with self reflections unique to her lifestyle but readily grasped. Excerpts (from separate poems) provide a sampling of the flavor:

For it is often through miles and testing
That a girl can find her strong,
And sometimes, the most luminous beauty
Comes from days that are hard and long.

The wild is singing a simple song in seven shades of complicated. It
sings of lost and loss and light and lissome wind. It moans of dark
and dripping and dank and draining and devils in the night.
Something sacred this way comes.

Teach me to see
Beyond my nation,
Beyond my appetite
More than tracks in the dust,
the barefoot bear foot,
To see past the words
or agendas
or ones and zeros
or ancient Jungian bleed

Tomorrow we start this cow and bull hunt.
It's catch and release every year.
But you couldn't pay me to stay at home
When most of what I love is out here.

Finally, from Auker's poem "Sweetly Singing," a longer excerpt:

The alarm sings at 4 a.m.
Ours is a work song—
   a song of doing, with hands and hearts—
      a heartbeat song.

It is an I-N-G song—
   a song of rising, going, growing,
      moving, mounting, being there
where the work is always waiting

Ours is a living song,
   a defining song, a refining song—
      trial by fire—
a some days are hard in four/four time song.
It is a cycle song, a season song,
a never-ending circle song—
      with weather. And death

My recommendation? Read this book (even if poetry is not your preference) for its glimpse into the realities of living and working in the vast outdoors: hardships and benefits comingled with vivid insights.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems speaks to the heart of life lived cowboying and to the heart of modern cowboy poetry. The hardships, the happy moments, the reality of each day and the mystery that reminds us as in 'Chindi Song.'
Written in a way that only this writer can write and laid down in the stanza in a way different and delightful, where the reader can see the dual interchange. "lifted from night waves" does that for me.
... And
If you are like me, you'll see the beauty in the stanzas, the shape, and form of the poem and you might find yourself touching the page just to feel the words.

[Craig McHenry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love to listen to Amy Hale Auker tell her stories and recite her poetry at cowboy poetry gatherings. I also love to linger over her words in print.

Livestock Man is a treat, word paintings that make this city dweller feel more in touch with nature and solitude and satisfying work outdoors.

I rarely read poetry. When I do, I have to fight the urge to consume it as quickly as possible. I tried to slow myself down, enjoying this book in bits and pieces. I know I need to pick it up again and again to read one poem at a time to let the images blossom.

Thanks Amy! Keep doing what you do so well.

Peace...

[Kit Phelps · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Amy Hale Auker's "Livestock Man". I've read it through three times in the last three days. Some of the poems, like "Mediocrity", and "See you back at the Barn", I return to over and over. I find myself grinning, nodding in agreement ("Temple Grandin for President"), and blinking back tears. I am a rancher, so her subject matter hits home, but she transcends the catagory "Cowboy Poetry". I hope people don't miss out because she writes about cows. Thank-you Amy!