And Howls For Us To Follow is a poetry collection that will get inside your head and run rampant. These poems will echo in your mind at the oddest times, prompting you to evaluate the world around you. They will touch your soul and challenge it to fly with the forces of nature.

If you are looking for poetic device and mechanics, you will find plenty here. Butts shows skill in manipulating his words and lines for maximum effect. Whether you like metaphors and similes or assonance and near rhyme, you will find several examples in this book. But if what you like is an in-your-face poem that makes you think about the world and state of humanity, this collection cannot be topped! If you are drawn to visual poetry, you will be astounded by Butts' use of the lines to reinforce his words.

Overall, this book is composed of protest poetry of the finest form. Butts addresses the large game farm preserves of Montana, test tube babies, organ donation, threatened habitats, and so much more. He basically puts modern life under a microscope. He has a knack for spinning the words to achieve a dual-edged sword. The poems have double meaning and apply in a narrow sense or in the universal "bigger picture."

The layout of the book adds to the profound effect. Butts inserts the title poem, And Howls for us to Follow, as an epilog. This poem relates how the author feels "like the suburban coyote." He views the world and our state of affairs from the coyote's eyes.  It leaves you with a haunting image: "Coyote, standing in reality, watches…….them then slips through a loop hole in these worlds and howls for us to follow…"

This poem makes you question how we can find a loop hole in the state of the world and begin to change things. How do we get out of the mess we have made of our world? Long after you have put this book away, the image of this coyote will haunt you.

This is one of the most powerful poetry manuscripts I have read. This guy ranks right up there with the masters! He is good! I suspect that in 50 years, his work will be taught in every English classroom as one of the great "classics." He has documented our world at the beginning of this millennium for future generations. He has not attempted to sugarcoat anything. Instead, he has painted the picture with accurate bleakness! I hope you will all read this book. It hits home.