Like scattered birds, they circle back
hovering, fragments of faces, bits
of song fluttering and floating before me,
moments searching for a place to roost
within memory. Some high and bold
on bare branches singing yet, singing
always, while others light behind
a rustling wall of leaves to build nests,
mate and incubate quietly within me.
Bird’s Eye Gilla – April 11, 2011
Sometimes mindless creatures
of habit in bloom,
never sure who’s got whom.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged Bird's Eye Gilla, haiku, photographs, poetry, wildflowers
Blow Wives – April 6, 2013
Spreading seed on wider wings,
Dandelion
by any other name.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged Blow Wives, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, wildflowers
Johnny Tuck – March 31, 2013
I can show up anywhere
yet never certain who
I want to be.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged Dry Creek, haiku, Johnny Tuck, photographs, poetry, wildflowers
Not wind through willow limbs that sing of rooted past,
but our first tunes, drummed upon catgut strings, cast
beyond early stirrings searching words to fit a melody
of earthly work, we find a moment’s worth of immortality.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Cowboy Celtic, Cowboy Poetry, National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, photographs, poetry
Purple Milkweed – May 2, 2011
Alien spaceships,
purple people eaters
or just milkweed in bloom.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged flower-friday, Greasy Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, Purple Milkweed, wildflowers
Fiddleneck – April 5, 2011
I’d make music
if I could only trumpet
from my fiddle neck.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged Dry Creek, Fiddleneck, haiku, photographs, poetry, wildflowers
Phacelia (Scorpionweed) and Lichen – May 15, 2011
Competing everywhere you look
grace and color
growing together.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged Greasy Creek, haiku, Lichen, Phacelia, photographs, poetry, Scorpionweed, wildflowers
I was so happy to see Ramblin’ Jack Elliott last night after the full house, Baja California show concluded that I rather rudely interrupted his conversation with a young lady to shake his hand for a quick hello. I caught up with her later to apologize, only to learn that she was a reporter for Reuters looking for a real cowboy poet.
The Poetry Gathering won’t officially begin until Thursday, and few of us are here yet, but Robbin and I come early to acclimate and set up camp in our motel room. Looking at my Giants hat, she didn’t believe me when I told her I was one.
Try as I might to break free of the urban stereotype, the ensuing interview and conversation confirmed so many misconceptions about our livestock culture that I was somewhat dismayed, even frustrated at times trying to explain that we’re not all Republicans, not all isolated from the rest of the world in a mythical West — that there is a difference between dairy and beef cattle.
The interview concluded where it should have begun, that we, just like the livestock culture of the Baja Californians, are land based, our physical and mental health dependent upon the health of the land and our cattle. We are not looking to blame the current drought in the American Southwest on Global Warming or the tsunami in Japan, nor are we looking to US politics for drought relief. As a self-reliant bunch, we try to solve problems, working with the current drought the best we can.
I probably didn’t change her mind much, but that’s what the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is all about, offering varied perspectives to help bridge the gap between the range livestock culture and the urban majority — it’s not all in a hat.
Posted in Ranch Journal
Tagged Drought, Elko Nevada, National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, politics, rain, weather
Purple Chinese Flowers – April 5, 2011
Cleaning houses
in the high-rent district
has certain advantages.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged Greasy Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, purple chinese houses, wildflowers
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