EssayReview Blood Trails. By BillJones and Rod McQueary. (Lemon Cove, California: Dry Crik Press, 1993. 89 pages, $45.00/$12.00.) Hung Out toDry. ByJohn C. Dofflemyer. (Lemon Cove, California: Dry Crik Press, 1992. 35 pages, $5.95.) ToadWritesShortShorts.ByGerald Locklin. (Racine,Wisconsin: BGSPress, 1993. 20 pages, $3.00.) A Weebfor All Seasons. By Charles Harper Webb. (Long Beach, California: Applezaba Press, 1992. 66 pages, $23.95/$8.95.) Poetry is alive and well in the western little press scene. These four books testifyto the vitalityandvarietyofwriting amongwesternwriterswhose primary outlet has been the little magazine and chapbook presses. Two of these books are serious in theme, twoare lighthearted. Ofthe four, one deserves the widest possible circulation, and one would be interesting to hear in a voice- recorded format. Blood Trails is a collection of poems by two men who served with the Marines during the Vietnam War and saw the sort of military action that one cannot easilyforget. Although there is an introduction which praises the book forfusing “twounlikelysub-genres ofcontemporarypoetry,”i.e.,CowboyPoetry and Namvet Poetry, the book is remarkable and powerful without the labels. Whatwe have here are twomenwritingwith intense honestyand courage about the past and its effect upon their lives. Memories of war intrude upon their dreams, trouble their loving relationships, and threaten personal identity. The sights and sounds and smells ofcarnage are present here, readers beware, but so are the struggles ofveterans trying to forgive and forget. Read in sequence from beginning to end, Blood Trails moves from the gruesome details of military maneuvers of twenty-five years ago, to present attempts at rituals and behaviors that help substitute the remembered pain and contradictions of violence with feelings of forgiveness and unity. This is the most impressive of the four books under review, and one can only wish that Jones and McQueary enjoy the recognition they deserve for their efforts. Hung Out toDry is a chapbook originally published and mailed to accom pany a special environmental issue of Dry Crik Review. As one might assume, 66 WesternAmerican Literature most of the thirty-four poems in this volume have as their subject the natural environment. The love of nature coupled with a dislike of development and narrow-minded governmental bureaucrats are constant themes throughout the poems. Butthe author,John C. Dofflemyer, also the editor and publisherofDry Crik Press, is a “fifth generation Tulare County cattleman ranching ... in the foothills below Sequoia National Park.” So, his feelings for the land and for nature have a gut-level intensity not often present in the work of armchair environmentalists. His love ofthe land and desire to preserve the environment have much to dowith hisfamily’sheritage and livelihood. His poems are about the nobilityof lifeon theworkingfamilyranch, theunique contribution ofhorses and cattle to theAmerican West, and the rancher’swell known dislike ofphony cowboys and fast-talking bankers and brokers. Although most are written in free verse, several ofthe poems are in the cowboyballad formatwith quatrains rhyming ab -a-b. Toad Writes Short Shortsby Gerald Locklin, a faculty member at California State, Long Beach, isacollection offunny, silly, quirky, and quite engagingvery short poems. In twenty pages, there are forty-nine poems “Dedicated to The Epigram/orThe Quickie,/whicheveryouprefer.”With that double-entendrelurk ing on the title page, one can see that these are not meant to be profound pieces ofliterature. Indeed, many are irreverent, but one cannot help laughing out loud at some, and nodding in agreement or sympathetic understanding at many others. This may be true only for those of us who have lived for a while in the academic environmentand havecome tounderstand the painsand pleasuresof teaching and universitylife. For example: Student Evaluations he was trying to payme the highest compliment, and in the light ofsome ofhis classmates’comments, i reallyneeded one. but it came out, “i’ve learned more data in this class that i could possibly retain. Another example which speaks for itself: AMost Distinguished Colleague The Philosophy Department advertises: The Third Annual Leibniz Lecture. I figure that at his age one lecture a year isall we should expect ofhim. Essay Review 67 Onewonders ifavoice recorded reading ofthese poemswould enhance or diminish them. Does their brevity and humor align them too...