image borrowed from the wild west news
THE RAWHIDE RIDER
“Round them up & head them out!”--Gil Favor, trail boss.
Today, for some reason, I’ve got Westerns on my mind--
that would be Westerns of every kind;
pulps, novels, paperbacks, audio books, movies & TV,
dipping deep into all the Cowboy nostalgia I can find.
Why the fascination--what’s the key?
Why the genuflection--why bend a knee?
Maybe because I look good riding a horse.
Maybe because I imagine I’m part Apache.
I pine for the Hollywood West, of course--
rejecting actual history without remorse;
imagining wearing two silver Colts, joining the cast,
perpetuating the myth, serving the source.
Daydreams or buckskin hallucinations--just living in the past,
there in the red dust of Monument Valley so vast.
Please don’t shake me too hard, or wake me too fast,
for when it comes to devouring dreams, let me be last.
Glenn Buttkus
Posted over on dVerse Poets MTB
Where Gay has us writing to the rhyme scheme of AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD.
Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?
Loved this, Glenn. Seamless effort at a form that fit your subject and message so well, and vice versa. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteWish I could play, too, but...
hey - nice job on the rhymes glenn... ha - and westerns seem so fascinating for a man - maybe it's the wild and open land - the freedom and rawness... i would love to ride a horse - not necessarily a colt in my hand though...smiles
ReplyDeleteOh I have recently seen to many of those truly depressing western films, so maybe a need a dose of classic Hollywood cowboy dreams... Have you ever seen the "Icelandic Western"?.. that was really gritty.
ReplyDeleteACE with the rhymes, sir... I'm not a fan of westerns, so don't wake me too fast, either; just shake me when the movie's over. :)
ReplyDeleteWell not everyone likes to fit into iambic tet - for Bjorn and me I think it's the way we think. Every now and then I have to transpose a syllable or choose another word but I guess writing form these last four or five years has retuned my ear.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I am a devotee of the modern, and when you can turn the modern in a rhyme scheme, you have made that form your voice and your form. I loved the way you crafted this!
And like the others I have read today, the poem is more than the sum of the images and what it says. It takes me to the 50s, to the time of cowboys, to the hayday of those films. How wonderfully you paint it in your unique song!
I've long been fascinated with the cowboy myth, probably from those Saturday matinee Westerns when I was a kid, so this resonates with me. Head 'em up, move 'em out.
ReplyDeleteah... maybe a childhood dream... i bet you played cowboys and Indians as a child
ReplyDeleteGood for you to be fascinated with Western & cowboy stories Glenn ~ Maybe you are part Cowboy yourself in the past ~ Live it out in the red dust of Monument Valley ~
ReplyDeleteI know this. As a teenager Westerns would fascinate me, particularly books.
ReplyDeleteNever could stand John Wayne though...
Anna o]
Oh this is clever and fun to read. LOVE the closing lines!
ReplyDeleteGreat fun. Took me back to my childhood liking for films and cowboy games. Thank you.
ReplyDelete...love the last verse...and the great rhymes...this is fun.
ReplyDeletesmiles...i appreciate your dreams man...and your desire not o be awoken...reminds me of the song cottonwood tree a bit, just different as you are different.....well played sir....
ReplyDeleteI had a buckskin mare once..she was beautiful and not a hallucination...and my grandfather was part Cherokee. I love the wide open territory of the old West films..and really dig some cowgirl poetry.
ReplyDeleteA very nice read.
ReplyDeleteReally fun -- as always filled with love for bravado!
ReplyDeleteSuperb rhyme.
Very much enjoyed -- your honesty is refreshing.
Like the 'buckskin hallucinations'. I can't say that I know you beyond your poetry, but from what I do know, this poem is very 'you'.
ReplyDelete