Keeping it Simple (Old West Style)

Well, as I said, I love stories of the old west and that will include poetry( Cowboy Poetry as well). Everyone has at least one poem in them if they just sit down and think about it. I will attempt my own and that of others as I go along. My goal is to create appreciation for the old west and the things in it that shaped our country and even our thinking. So much of the Old West is still relevant today as we still fight the same societal battles that were prevalent then. Maybe by looking back at this time period in history we can find ourselves and our purpose for being, if we just happened to lose our way in today's pressure-cooker society. It was a simple time in many ways and folks mostly spoke very plain. We need some of that simple way of talking today, because just like in George Orwell's book, 1984 ,we seem to have acquired a taste for DOUBLESPEAK ( Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words) in our society. Let's strive to keep it simple and say what we mean so that the person we are speaking to has no doubt what is on our minds.  I found this Cowboy Poetry by Marvin Hass and thought it really conveyed  what the old west really was all about.

WHEN CREATION WAS YOUNG
Marvin Hass

Take me out to the edge of creation
Where the land and the rivers are wild
Let me see forever and…then some
To the place where God rested and smiled.

Show peaks that reach to the top of the world
Turning pink as they greet the new day
Help me feel the way that it certainly was
When the West was “The West” as they say.

“Place me inside of the dust clouds
At the head of the great long horn herd
Astride a mustang just one step ahead
When “stampede” was the echoing word.”

Hand me the letters all written in love
As I ride from St. Joe to the West
Delivered come hell, or high water
The Pony Rider who never knew rest.

Let me throw in my lot with the miners
Where manhood was tested ten fold
Bacon and beans was the meal of the day
Just one in a thousand found gold.

I was born when the glory was over
With history all written and won
Just thinking aloud how it all must have been
In the West when creation begun.

May my ghost haunt the shadows at twilight
When my days in the west are all done.
Let my soul rest not far from the Western Star
Then I’ll always and ever be young.


How about a little Cowboy Humor?


Cowboy in Heaven

A young cowboy appeared before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates..

'Have you ever done anything of particular merit?' St. Peter asked.

'Well, I can think of one thing,' the cowboy offered...

'On  a trip to the Black Hills out in South Dakota, I came upon a gang of bikers, who were threatening a young woman.
I directed them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen.. 
So, I approached the largest and most heavily tattooed biker and smacked him in his face ...
I then kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and threw it on the ground.
I yelled, 'Now, back off!! Or I'll kick the shit out of all of you!'

St. Peter was impressed. 'And when did all of this happen?' He asked.

The cowboy sheepishly looked down at his boots as he scuffed one across the cloud he stood on, then answered....

'Why just a couple of minutes ago...'