This collection of modern poetry reflects the life and views of a man influenced by a pioneer heritage and tempered by growing up during the Great Depression and suffering through years drought in the Sandhills of Nebraska in the early 1930s. The poems were shaped by the author's youthful experience as a cowboy on his own economically from the time he was twelve. Together, the verses weave a family tapestry revealing bits of historic and contemporary life as well as the viewpoints and biases of the author, as he comments on life yesterday and today...moments captured and preserved. Although recognized as a successful, prize-winning western and cowboy poet, the author's primal work was originally published in two books of blank and free verse - Voices of the Wind in 2002 and Reflections in 2003 - the contents of which are collected in this one volume of Rustic Ruminations.