Fred Olds Western Poetry Award, 2015, Awarded by the Westerners International
Rod's poetry is infused with a genuineness that elevates his work above the medium's predictable yarns and gives the reader a front-row seat at a captivating reality-based dramedy. You observe from a respectful distance the poignant moment shared by a young girl and her horse. You take a seat at the kitchen table in a ranch house in which the "romance of cowboy life" is balanced against the realities of mortgages, droughts and volatile markets. And you're let in on the West's unique brand of humor, shaped by hard luck, eccentricity, and the unpredictability of lives shaped by the land, weather and livestock. Rod is a truthteller.And truth can, on occasion, be dangerous.
