Cowboy Poets

While being lazy near the Colorado River deep in the canyonlands near Moab, Utah, I just soaked in the stillness and scenery of what I think of as John Ford country. Then thought, words can't describe it, but that didn't stop me. If you've been there, you know. If you haven't, just watch a John Ford western movie, like Stagecoach with John Wayne.

COWBOY POETS

We talk about the cowboy.
We talk about the West.
We paint word pictures of a place
the sun goes down to rest.
Some recount ranch humor
and some replay the wrecks
when horse and rider both went down
and bounced like rubber checks.
Some talk of creaking leather
or the smell of new moan hay,
or the way the stars light up the sky
at night we’re you’re away
from city lights and traffic noise.
It’s quiet way out West
when you’re gathered round the camp fire
where the sun goes down to rest.

Some rhymers will remind us
in their own poetic way
that “Out West” did not happen
in an accidental way.
God chiseled out the flat top buttes
and gouged the canyon land.
God set the Colorado’s course
and I believe He planned
that when we gaze upon West;
its awesome size and scope
that we would be reminded,
in the midst of trials, there’s hope.
God knew we’d need reminding
so He planned this from the start.
cause in the end, it’s clear my friend,
God’s got cowboy in his heart.

Jeff Hildebrandt © April 25, 2012