FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

66

DW Groethe

The Novice

It haunts and it hangs on o're the heights like some gossamer spirit wound swiftly in flight reaching out to envelop then pull in half tight just to explode and then black into night. It follows through yellow and red and then green. Floats in and out of a source unseen that is at once violent sublime and serene and it beckons me closer, this unfolding scene.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

67

DW Groethe

Three Horses Waiting

Better finish wrappin 'boys, we gotta cut a trail. The day is swift be on slow go 'fore we hitch that evenin' rail. Like as not we'll get there fine but you know this time a year can bring a turn that's hard an' quick an' the weather's none too clear.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

68

DW Groethe

The Great Hay Yard Assault of '04 (The Sad State of Cowboy Job Security)

We fix the fence. They tear it down. We fix the fence. They tear it down. We electrify they leap an'fly we barricade they soon evade an' make a new door down the line. Ain't that just fine! 'cause now we start whole thing up again. We chouse the cows back out an' then we fix the fence.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

69

DW Groethe

The Feed Truck Blues

They say it used to be a Ford that when new was so adored was washed and even polished once a week. But as time went flittin' by a Chevy caught their eye an' the pickup's future went from bright to bleak. 'Cause they gave it to the kids who put the darn thing on the skids so fast a new trannie was a must.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

72

DW Groethe

Notes on the Clipper

Startled whispers, spirits in the snow, rush about the yard and sheds like sparrows on the go. A quiet blue foreboding lingers as you stare and you know what's comin' on 'cause you can feel it in the air. but you hold your breath and pray with every fiber of your bein'

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

74

DW Groethe

just Like a Chinook

She come on strong and warm and totally unexpected. Just like a chinook during one a them long hard spine~cracking winters when even the stones groan. My spirit quivered. Been a while. You bury things deep in a spell like that and time takes time to thaw feelin' frozen deep as all that.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

76

DW Groethe

When Spring Breaks on the Prairie

When spring breaks on the prairie when calves start comin''round when crocus fill the hillsides from the draws up to the crowns. When you get that lonesome yearnin' for a drift of new~mowed hay can the first warm breeze of summer really be that far away? You've gone through forty winters an' you plan on forty more

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

77

DW Groethe

The Fence

When it comes to vexation and ire nothin' gets my dander higher than bein' out in the sticks tryin' to fix hun'erd~year~old strands a'wire. They criss cross in jumbles an'knots in places God's all but forgot. Hangin 'from posts that gave up the ghost way back when Valentino was hot. You can randomly pick any stretch of thirty odd feet an' you'll fetch

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

80

DW Groethe

Yearlin' Heifers~Part I

How they love to go a neighborin', an' seek more scenic bits of range, I think, perhaps, they've joined some kind of herbivore exchange. (no matter)...Every clip had better be in place and hangin' tight and true. Best tap them staples extra good so the girls ain't slippin' through. Their whole reason for existence, til you get that hearlin' bull,

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

81

DW Groethe

He Rides a Mellow Gelding Anymore

He rides a mellow gelding anymore. A good horse but not as spirited as before. An' that's just fine. 'Cause there comes a time when a fella grows tired of dirt. A taste~full here a face~full there. a back plumb full a'hurt. He figgers heck, he's paid his dues an' one more wreck, well, he'd hate to lose it all the way.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

85

DW Groethe

My Father's Horse

It must've been a day for peace an' reverie when my father took his pencil in his hand an' scribed upon his notebook all the horses that he'd had when growin' up in west Dakota land. I can see him sittin', thoughtful, soft smile in his eyes, as the ponies pranced before him, once again. Then he jotted each one down with a slow an' care full hand, sometimes, horses can count right up with kin.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

87

DW Groethe

This Old Post

This old post was cut an' cleaned an'carted up the river road when my great granddaddy was barely a shadow of the man my granddad knowed. He was young an' life was free for the takin'. Not free like it is today. No sir.. He drug this cedar, an' most of that line, from many a mile away.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

89

DW Groethe

Tripod

Tripod was a coyote, used to hang around the place, we'd run across him ever' now an' then, huntin' though the meadows or just lazin' on the hill that overlooked his buggy coyote den. His near hind leg was crippled, prob'ly shot while on the run, got lucky , dodgin' death by just a hiar.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

90

DW Groethe

One Morning at the gates of Eternity

Caw.. I turn my head up. One lonesome crow atop an old ash, still winter shorn in early spring. Caw.. Nice (I'm thinking) to be acknowledged by another species. Caw... Insistent. In cadence (crow cadence). Every few seconds or so a

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

92

DW Groethe

My Heart's in Montana

This ol' earth's a big piece stretchin' far beyond yonder, filled with cities of millions of folks all around'er. Their lives wallowed deep inside pillars of steel and concrete and land smothered dead with a seal of asphalt and chiprock till it's no longer real..mayhaps real for them but for someone like me..no..My hear't in Montana where the big rivers meet.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

94

DW Groethe

I Was Here

"I was here," said the bones, randomly scattered through the bunchgrass as I crossed to close the far gate. "Remember?...I was a~comin' four. Gave you two good calves. Heifer calves..Remember? It was something I ate, you said, Nails or wire or something. and when you found me it was too late, you said. And you left me here..Remember? I remember.. I was here." said the bones.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

95

DW Groethe

Roughstock

Thunder wrapped in hoof hide and hair, a~waitin' the storm rider. A nod, an opening, and like a July squall out of nowhere blows into being a sleek eight seconds. Heart poundin' hell tipping Eternity's edge gone int he breathless blink of a mind's eye gettin' set on the next go.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

99

DW Groethe

Two Cowpokes and a Tamper

They came upon a fencepost, a tamper leanin' on it, an' pondered on the world of fencin' arts. "Ev'r worked them things?," the other quipped, "the darn thing's got too many workin' parts."

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

100

DW Groethe

Star Cavvy

Somewheres along the line, after years of sleepin' out, a~layin, 'lookin' from his soogan bed, he got to seein' patterns, in the way the stars were set, a~studyin' the Heavens l'er head. One outfit to the north, was a big ol' letter M. His first pony'd wore that brand up 'till it died. An' a square, not too far off, was that blockhead roan he'd rode up from Texas..fin'lly swapped its on'ry hide.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

101

DW Groethe

The Night Ol' Flukie Foundered

We'd been quaffin' quarts of beers an' exchangin' Christmas cheers, yeehawin 'hoots an' shriekin 'filled the hall. 'Cause in honor of the season, an' fer one another reason, it was time fer Smokey's annual oyster ball. When thru the ol' front door stepped a stranger, limpin' sore.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

104

DW Groethe

The Homesteader

From day one, he knew that she, a great, gray granite thrust of a rock, was here to stay. He spent the summer taking team and stoneboat, plucking her brood, delving every inch of the field till it lay clean as wash..excepting that rock. A homesteader, three times the size of his stoneboat. He figured,

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

105

DW Groethe

Bittersweet and Ervin

Santa seen a lineshack in Montana, far below. Tugged a line 'n turned the team, lightin' softly on the snow. He slipped up to the window an' gandered some inside, seen a cowboy playin' cribbage with his young an' purty bride. Claus checked his list, say, once'er twice, an' found their names, a right, sauntered on back to his sleigh in moonlight shinin' bright.

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

108

DW Groethe

When There's Frost Upon the Ponies

When there's frost upon the ponies an' snow drift ont he ground, an' that yeller sun comes creepin' through the cedars all around, a feller gets to thinkin' maybe winter ain't so bad, starts shuckin' off the mem'ries

Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory

FC 11 G-44

109

DW Groethe

Over Yonder

They're a diff'ernt sorta breed, them that take to horse an' saddle, restless souls that're mighty prone to wander. Tho' they're grateful to be reachin' trail's end when day is done, they're always itchin' for what's over yonder. Might be it's just a hilltop that they've never seen before, get's 'em wond'rin 'bout what's on the other side.

Write 'Em Cowboy

FC 11 G-43

6

Peggy Godfrey

Resilience

No promises the wind will make unto the tender grasses nor leave a trace or memory nor count the times it passes. In gentle breeze or howling storm passion ebbs and flows resisting not, the grasses bend tremble, sing, and moan.