"Zarzyski, the best of the best, includes over thirty poems . . . which truly showcase his life and soul . . . [and] along with photographs by Barbara Van Cleve capture the grit of the rodeo lifestyle."-- Cowboys and Indians A good bronc ride spans eight seconds, a length of time which never seems to end. Artists working with this space face a unique challenge: to not only understand it, but to understand everything it contains. In the gate, sitting on the animal, is a lifetime of practice, broken bones, ripped tendons, failures, triumphs, hopes and fears. Paul Zarzyski and Barbara Van Cleve have managed to capture this lifetime. Zarzyski, a former bronc rider,, is a poet recognized in cowboy circles as well as larger ones. His poems are a mix of the insouciant -- "How the Lord Throwed-in with Mom to Make Me Quit the Broncs" -- and the emotional -- "All This Way for the Short Ride," a moving tribute to his friend Joe Lear who was killed in the arena. He is adept at both the microcosm and the sweeping, the time in the arena as well as the time at home, building fence, drinking. Barbara Van Cleve's pictures are of the fixed and steadfast, those moments when every muscle in the arena -- the rider, animal, crowd -- is taut. Her shots outside the arena -- of preparation, the lone horse in pasture, portraits -- are reserved, almost meditative. A collaboration such as All This Way for the Short Ride can be choreographed only to a certain point. The intangibles fill the holes, in spaces we cannot see. It becomes indescribable. Zarzyski and Van Cleve, in this book, complete the process. They are artful with their cowboys, and cowboys with their art. -- Brian Baise, Big Sky Journal , Spring 1997 Rodeo life is the subject of All This Way for the Short Ride . . . a lively collection of poems by Paul Zarzyski, a former bareback rider, illustrated by Barbara Van Cleve, a photographer who was recently inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. -- The New York Times Book Review, Megan Harlan Rodeo life is the subject of All This Way For the Short Ride: Roughstock Sonnets, 1971-1996 . . . a lively collection of poems by Paul Zarzyski, a former bareback rider, illustrated by Barbara Van Cleve, a photographer who was recently inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Though both Mr. Zarzyski and Ms. Van Cleve are from Montana, their very different styles work to capture a chorus of contradictory moods: her luminous black-and-white images seem etched from some archetypal landscape, while his verses bristle with audacity and whimsy. Mr. Zarzyski alternates between bluster and lyricism. For the former, he uses lopingly metered stanzas and punch-drunk, self-mythologizing bravura, which heightens both the flair and the corniness of rodeo lingo. ("Running on Bute, LeDous songs and caffeine / You rollicking, rosined-up, spurring machine.") But he proves equally adept at meditative free verse, as in the title poem, in which he compares a cowboy killed by a throw from a bronc to "a bride's bouquet / pitched blind." Ms. Van Cleve's facing photo reveals the impossibly calm center within such a moment, as the leaping horse hovers delicately above the ground and the rider, despite his flailing body, leans back with a peaceful expression. Together, these artists offer a rare slice of what Mr. Zarzyski calls the "real West, the sunset into which -- / imagine why, if you will -- the cowboy rides off." -- Megan Harlan, The New York Times Book Review A true renaissance of cowboy arts is under way, fueled by the Cowboy Poetry Movement with it burgeoning audience and astonishing book sales. Spurring this popular movement on are poets such as Paul Zarzyski. Energetic, literary, wise, and witty, he applies contemporary poetry to cowboy themes of loss and loneliness, the freedom of the open range, and the thrill of the eight-second ride. All This Way for the Short Ride combines a dozen of the best poems from Zarzyski's popular book Roughstock Sonnets (Lowell Press, 1989), with twenty new poems and thirty-five photographs by celebrated photographer Barbara Van Cleve. Winner, 1996 Wrangler Western Heritage Awards Montanan Paul Zarzyski is a former bareback rider. He now writes full time and has performed his work at the Library of Congress, Festival Hall in London, and numerous other grand venues. His six books and chapbooks include The Make-Up of Ice and I Am Not a Cowboy . Barbara Van Cleve is the author of Hard Twist: Western Ranch Women (Museum of New Mexico Press). A Montana native, her roots reach back to the homesteading era in the West. A recent inductee into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, her photographs of western landscape, ranching, and documentary subjects have won her an international reputation.