Live Free or Croak

By Larry Sherman Rogers

Live Free or Croak is a collection of poetry by poet/songwriter Larry Rogers.  Rogers, a Vietnam vet. and longtime resident of west central Arkansas, draws on his sharp wit, playful love of words, and  sensitive powers of observation to produce some of the finest snapshots of modern American country life available today.  Rogers

• Language: English
• Publisher: Golden Antelope Press
• Release date: Jul 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781936135363

Larry Sherman Rogers

Larry Rogers is a poet/songwriter. Growing up he lived for a while in Berkeley and Compton, California, but was mostly raised in a potting shed trailer in the piney woods of west central Arkansas-a sanctuary for moonshiners, marijuana growers, and merry pranksters. He lives with his wife, Judy, in Fort Smith, Arkansas. They have two grown children, Lily and Hank.

Book preview

LIVE FREE OR CROAK

Poems by

Larry Rogers

Copyright 2017 by Larry Rogers

Cover Image Copyright 2017 by Judy Rogers

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be duplicated in any way without the expressed written consent of the publisher, except in the form of brief excerpts or quotations for review purposes.

ISBN 978-1-936135-36-3

Published by:

Golden Antelope Press

715 E. McPherson

Kirksville, Missouri 63501

Available at:

Golden Antelope Press 715 E. McPherson

Kirksville, Missouri, 63501

Phone: [phone]

http://www.goldenantelope.com

Email: [e-mail]

Larry Rogers is a first-rate poet and maker of songs. In these pages the reader will find a range of emotion not achieved often, even by notable poets. Sometimes one picks up a little book and finds a gem, somewhat like stumbling across a forty carat diamond in a potato patch. Reading Rogers’ Live Free or Croak is very much like that.

—B.C.Hall, author of The Burning Season

Acknowledgments:

Some of these poems, often in earlier versions, were first published in the following journals. Grateful acknowledgement to the editors of these journals.

A Clean, Well-lighted Place.

Abbey.

The Chariton Review.

Chiron Review.

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Hanging Loose.

Kentucky Review.

Nerve Cowboy.

The New York Quarterly.

Pearl.

Rattle.

Rusty Truck.

Samizdat.

The Sand Canyon Review.

The San Pedro River Review.

The Smudge.

The South Carolina Review.

Spitball.

Sulphur River Literary Review.

Wormwood Review.

For Judy

CONTENTS

Live Free or Croak

First Loss of the Season

Mr Rescue

She wanted

Another Boy

Another Cigarette

Lines Written by a Desk Clerk Dressed in Black

Just Earth

The Body That Is Never There

The Card Players

Strumming

Security Farm

Sipping a