Category: Cowboy Poetry

POETS PILOTS AND COWBOYS

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Pilots, Poems about Poetry / tagged , , , / / by

POETS PILOTS AND COWBOYS

A poet will try to dissect the world
and he’ll try to show you each part
and he’ll write it all down with a pen
that he’s dipped in an old carin’ heart

While pilots have the eyes of a hawk
and a strut in the way that they walk
and they give all that’s in them to give
and they live every moment they live

And most cowboys are gentle not loud
and they’re not all that good in a crowd
and they talk like they’re about half asleep
but what they know boys and girls
they know deep

GOOD OLD BOYS

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Personal Growth / tagged , , , , , / / by

GOOD OLD BOYS

For years you’ve been cleaning up your act
But now the good old boys are coming back

And the guy they’re coming back to see
Is the good old boy that you used to be

You broke some broncs and drank some
beers
And played tough football in those
years

Cruised to front and back seat double
features
And took big guns to kill small timid
creatures

Since then you’ve passed through many a
door
But can’t say to them. I’m not that person
anymore

Of course they may have changed too

But how oh how could they tell … You

THE OLD BLUE PLANET / BLUE ROAN

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Environment / tagged , / / by

THE OLD BLUE PLANET / BLUE ROAN

She’s been rode hard
and not put away yet

She’s got a bad scraped hide
from a long rough ride

She’s been secticided and pesticided
and damned sure blind sided
with more spray and dip and hot feed
than any ten could stand or need

So think about loosenin that cinch a bit
and givin her a good long rest
and a deep drink of that old cool water
from the spring she likes the best

And stop that “Greenhorn” spurrin
whatever else you do
or you’re gonna have a good horse
dead under you

THE OLD DRY GUY AND THE BATH

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , / / by

THE OLD DRY GUY AND THE BATH

The old timers were all settin around the general store
I think they’d been there forever or a few days more
hocking up gossip and spit and an occasional snore

And as it’s always been in the West of the East
the one who knew the most said the least
He had a face like old harness and one bad eye
to myself I called him “the old dry guy”

Late January one year the old boys were a buzz
old Jeb had got scalded and burned off some fuzz
He’d been bathing in his kitchen in the old tin tub
and reached across for the kettle to warm up the rub
slipping he’d spilt it and lost some skin and some hair
and the boys were all speculatin’ how much and where

They’d talked it around for about three hours or more
when the ‘old dry guy’ moved in his chair by the door

They all got real quiet and leaned closer to hear

He said

“Serves the damn fool right, takin a bath this time of year”

GRASS FED

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , , / / by

GRASS FED

Shakespeare knows what we gotta do first
but let’s get rid of the feed lots next

Oats was made for breakfast
and corn was made for whiskey
cows was made for eatin grass
and calves for runnin frisky

Surely not for standin around
burstin their livers on a lot of hot feed
that they don’t need, and we don’t need

The beef might be
a little tougher to chew
but our hearts and our jaws
would soon be back to as good as new

And it might
come in real handy
not to be steroid de-sexed
when it comes to what we’ve gotta do next

TOO CROWDED

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , / / by

TOO CROWDED

My folks took some time off in the sixties
from their Saskatchewan ranching and
traveled down through South Texas

One day they stopped to talk to an
old cowboy sittin and a wittlin
on a rickety ranch porch

When he found out where they were from he said
“Say – do you know a man up there
by the name of Bill Prior?”

They said “Yes, he’s an old bachelor who lives up
past our north pasture, why do you ask?”

“Well” he said, “About 1928 Bill and I are out lookin
for some strays when we see another rider
coming over the furthest hill.”

Bill said to me, “It’s getting too damn crowded
down here, I’m heading for Canada”

“He turned his horse North and I haven’t
seen him since”

I NEVER SAW MY MOTHER ON HORSEBACK

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , / / by

I NEVER SAW MY MOTHER ON HORSEBACK

I understand that
she used to ride to school
but she was little and it was a farm
and somehow that didn’t seem to count

When she was about 75 she told me
about going with dad to the far end of the ranch
on a beautiful day a long time ago
to help round up some strays

She said that she liked it a lot
and couldn’t remember why she didn’t do it more

ROPE BURNS

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , / / by

ROPE BURNS

I want to be able to bring home to you

Not only what I caught today
but the rope burns from
the ones that got away

Not only the buckles for the ones
that I stayed on for the eight
but the taste of the dirt
and other stuff I ate

Not only the meat from that old bear
but all the claw marks he left there

That you’re the one I want to kiss them well
also shows the love that I can’t tell

ROUNDUP

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , , , , , / / by

ROUNDUP

It’s about the hardest dustiest best work a man can get

The pride of the heeling rope, thrown snake quick from a
good horse and the slow steady pull, dragging the white face
out where the boys with the hot irons
can record the feat

Three hundred cows sing of calves lost and found, and above
all through it all the full strong laugh of one of the boys,
where a slip was made or a kick well placed

At the end of the day, you wrap a rope sore hand around a
spring cold beer, and lean back against the old pole fence
deep in the pain, and the sweat, and the moment

Completely released from the wheel of desire

There’s no place you’d rather be
There’s no one you’d rather be with
and you’re too damn tired to move anyway