The blood truck, and 53 other poems
By: by Gordon Glass ; with illustrations by the author.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: 21st century American poets
Publisher: North American International
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Penn Laird , VA
Language: eng
Format: Soft
Number of pages: 87
ISBN-13: 9780882650197
Subjects: Poetry; Wisconsin; Kansas -19th Century; Nature poems; Small towns
Genres: Poetry
Other titles: Blood truck, and fifty-three other poems
First sentence: (from "Rural Wisconsin Auto Junkyard")

Parked rank on rank among the weeds,
hoods raised in stiff "Sieg Heil" salutes,
old autos, uniformed in suits
of rust, endure the milkweed seeds

that pirouette above the rows
as though the hills tossed ticker tapes
to honor all these battered shapes
being buried beneath these seedy snows.
Description: This book’s title poem, "The Blood Truck," uses an accident involving a truck of animal blood from a slaughter house as an entry point into a history of "bloody Kansas" in the 19th Century, focusing on the roles of John Brown and Quantrell’s murderous “Bushwackers." It includes 52 other poems in a largely traditional style, but with a modern sensibility. 

The author provides a dozen full-page, very detailed line drawings illustrating his poems, plus others of half a page, as well as dozens of small drawings relating to aspects of the poems.  Most of these poems (with a few notable exceptions) are about the author’s lifetime in Wisconsin, portraying both the people and the natural and manmade environment of the state. 

A notable poem (beautifully illustrated) is about a “Rural Wisconsin Auto Junkyard.”  Another deals with a church graveyard, “Where the Dead Lie Swimming Under Stones.”  Another finds deep lessons in a boy’s discovery of “A Sheep Skeleton.”
Notes: Since publication, the small publishing firm, North American International, which can be hard to find, has moved. . Their address new is P.O.Box 251, Penn Laird, VA 22846.  NAI can be reached at naibooks@gmail.com, and has a Web presence on ebay.com and ecrater.com  Publication of the hardcver edition has been postponed, and will not be available anytime soon.  The author / illustrator lives in Richland Center, Wisconsin.