These poems were written over a period of several years. In January 1997 Jim was in a car accident and had a neck injury. He had disk replacement surgery on his neck in April of that year. His neck was fixed but the pain never left. He never wrote another poem! His gift was gone!Jim has been published many times in local papers. He was always invited to read at the Cowboy Poetry readings near our home in Hamilton, MT. In 1995 Jim won the Homer Award (a National Award) for his Poem, "Of Distant Thunder", and he traveled to Disneyland to receive it.