Sharon Waller Knutson’s “My Grandfather is a Cowboy” is a collection of poetry you read as though you were watching a film from the old West, but without Hollywood’s make believe. Knutson’s poems take us deep into the heart of cowboy country: Montana, Idaho and Arizona, with wonderful lines like: “My father blows into town / with the Montana wind.

” and “He wore a black ten-gallon hat / and snakeskin boots and Levi’s / so tight they painted his legs blue / I never saw a gun but in Texas / he said, he wore a Saturday / night special in a holster on his hip. ”Rose Mary Boehm, Sausade (Kelsay Books 2023)Sharon Waller Knutson’s spare elegant and powerful storytelling is crafted with simplicity--common words, syntax, to create images that are complex, entertaining, and poignant, all at the same time.

One example is the image of young love: “I imagine how my mother melts like the butter in the pan. ” It’s hard to pick favorites but I go back to the title poem, “My Grandfather is a Cowboy,” “Toddler Houdini” and “Smoke and Mirrors” for the stories they tell and to savor the rhythm of the words and images.

Joan Leotta, Feathers on Stone (Main Street Rag 2022)In “My Grandfather Is a Cowboy,”Sharon Waller Knutson lassoed me before I even got to the first poem. Still, I’d already met the strong resilient women of her family in “The Leading Ladies of My Life”and suspected the men had a hard act to follow.

No need to worry though, as Knutson doesn’t believe in dull storytelling. Her twists and turns, especially her surprise endings, keep readers galloping along, eager to see over the next page.

Alarie Tennille, Three A. M.

at the Museum (Kelsay Books 2021). .