books

Welcome to Blackbead Books!

Blackbead now carries the first book by Stephen Sanders, a previously unpublished Texas poet! His first book, Characters - The Buffalo Soldier and Other Poems can be purchased by logging onto Blackbead Books and either downloading the book or ordering a print of the book. Blackbead and Captain Jasper hope to have autographed copies of the book available for sale at their next show!

Here are some excerpts from the book:

Spartacus

They can make me cry out in pain,
They have done so before and will do so again.
They can make me bleed,
Dark, red blood without the succor of death.
They can make me run and hide
And hate myself for my cowardice.
They can make me give up
The people and things I love most.

But they cannot make me forget
What we had and the way it was;
In this lies their doom . . . and mine.

The Buffalo Soldier (an excerpt)

Back in the nineteen-twenties it was
And I was just a lad.
I turned eighteen that summer
But still live with my mom and dad.

Those were the days of milkmen,
Two quarts and a pound of real butter at your door,
Starched white suits at sunrise . . .
But they don't do that anymore.

Our milkman was an old Black fella
Who everyone called "Tobacco Slim,"
I saw him every now and then,
But I never thought much of him.

This epic tale of the effect that meeting a retired Buffalo Soldier has on a young white American tells the story of the Buffalo Soldiers and points out that their deeds had a lasting effect, not only on African-American history, but the history of America as a whole. The poem is over fifty stanzas long and would make a wonderful reading for any event that celebrates the diversity of our country!