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Clay Hills
Copyright © 1996
by JV Brummels
Nosila Press
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Cattleman and widower Matthew French has achieved a measure of balance
in his
life on the land of northern Nebraska. That balance is shattered when he
is
faced with the needs of a terminally ill brother, the possibility of
romance,
and the threat of violence. — from the jacket
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Cheyenne Line
Copyright © 2001
by JV Brummels
Backwaters Press
How to Buy
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Brummels' throws are true: he cuts, clips and brands each poem distinctly as a JV
Brummels poem. — from the jacket.
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On Common Ground:
William Kloefkorn, Ted Kooser,
Greg Kuzma, and Don Welch
Copyright © 1983
by Mark Sanders & JV Brummels
Sandhills P
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Besides living in Nebraska, about the only other attribute the poets share
is that of dedication to their craft. In the process of expressing this
dedication, to paraphrase from Greg Kuzma's interview, none of them has
dimmed his responsiveness to the world, repressed the vital energies of
things, or
grown immune to his surroundings. The essays in the book vary widely in
perceptivity and
illumination — a few are excellent — but even the less helpful
ones
offer new perspectives on the poetry discussed. On the other hand, the
interviews are invaluable. They reveal the poets'
attitudes towards what they create; appreciation of the poems is enhanced
by this knowledge. The condition of poetry
today is described and evaluated in the interviews. Among the issues
disussed are politics and bureacracy in the world
of poetry, granstmanship ("proetry"), the rewards and hazards of
publishing,
poets' responsibilities and difficulties in the workaday world, the
propriety of appointing a State
Poet, and the usefulness of poetry. — Steve Norman,
Nebraska Library Assocation Quarterly, Summer 1984
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Sunday's Child
Copyright © 1994
by JV Brummels
Basfal Books
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JV Brummels' second collection of poems, Sunday's Child, defines
the endurance and
faith required for living on the Northern American plains, whether it be
"ninety below in a badlands of polished / strata sculpted by forty days'
freeze," "a hot, sticky afternoon doing / the backstroke in Krueger's
Pond," or "a drizzling Saturday in early fall pitching a game at Del's."
Addressing the natural contrasts familiar to generations in the
plains, conditions that yield, in the words of Henry Nash Smith, both
"inexhaustible bounty" and "scourges of drought, sandstorms, and
grasshoppers upon suffering humanity," Brummels' narratives bring alive
the desolation and find heart to celebrate the women and men of his state,
his century. These poems see dearth and plenty, surely, but more surely
witness the griefs and good humor, the hard labor and love that work
through to survival and to triumph. — from the jacket
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