Jim Fox has been putting his thoughts onto paper for many years, both in poetry and as essays. Here are selected works that reflect his sensitivity as a poet and his straightforward opinions as an essayist. "These are my favorite pieces that I have written from the time of my youth up to the present," says Fox. "I touch upon many topics such as religion, music, family and friends, politics."

As the United States of America reformed to create a more perfect Union in the aftermath of the Civil War that was waged between the North and the South, now more than ever the West was the new frontier that had to be laid claim to. But the Native American tribes were not about to relinquish their sacred land without a fight. It would all culminate at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The next day, a Chinaman working on the Trans-Continental Railroad, stumbles upon a newborn Indian boy as he was in search of fresh water. Lying beside the baby are the bodies of his murdered mother and sister....