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Bar-D May & June 2009: DW Groethe & Ken Cook

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Like the weather, you could say that everyone knows about “cowboy logic,” but no one does anything about it. That quirky way of looking at the world is often at the heart of Baxter Black’s poetry and commentaries, and is perfectly summed up in Michael Martin Murphey’s popular song that takes the term for its title.

Montana ranch hand, poet, and songwriter DW Groethe demonstrates that art of cowboy reasoning in this poem:
 

 

Two Cowpokes and a Tamper

 

They came upon a fencepost,
a tamper leanin' on it,
an' pondered on the world of fencin' arts.
"Ever worked them things?" one asked,
"Not a chance," the other quipped,
"the darn thing’s got too many workin' parts."

© 2008, DW Groethe. All rights reserved.

 

DW's been featured at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and other gatherings, the Library of Congress, The Kennedy Center, and returns to the 71st National Folk Festival in Butte, Montana, July 10-12, 2009. His recent book, West River Waltz, received the Will Rogers Medallion Award ($24.50 postpaid from: DW Groethe, PO Box 144, Bainville, MT 59212; 406/769-2312).

Third-generation South Dakota rancher and poet Ken Cook makes a bold statement about cowboy and ranching life in a poem inspired by memories of his grandfather:
 

 

 

What has not changed ol' cowboy friend
Since you was young and men were men?
When horse not broke till nearly five?
Cow's horns intact kept calf alive!

What has not changed in all your days,
Is nothin' left of cowboy ways?
The wagon was your only home
And blackest eve Nighthawk did roam,

To hold 'em quiet with lullaby
And ride the ridge where coyotes cry.
What has not changed in all your days,
Is nothin' left of cowboy ways?

When fences held a garden tight
And grass for miles a wondrous sight,
With horse and rope to branding fire
You burned the hide with one desire,

To live a life on Sandhills grass.
Tell me cowboy, has all that passed?
I'll tell you boy what still remains
Of cowboy ways here on the plains.

By God you ride the same as me
And cows are cows near's I can see.
I'll tell you son what still survives
Of cowboy ways shines in your eyes.

Few teams are left and fence appeared
So Nighthawk sleeps but over years,
By God you rope and do it grand
'Cause it's your life, you've made your stand,

Which has not changed in all the days
You've kept alive a cowboy's ways.
You fight back change to keep old ways
That every year make ranching pay,

So generations yet to come
Might live this life that we've begun.
They'll saddle horse to work a cow
Here on this ranch like we do now.

© 2007, Ken Cook.  All rights reserved.

 

Ken has been featured at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and other events across the West. He will perform at the Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora, North Dakota, May 23-24, 2009. “The Conversation” is on his new CD, Cowboys Are Like That ($15 postpaid from Ken Cook, 23154 Teal Lane, Martin, SD 57551-6601; 605/685-6749; http://www.kencookcowboypoet.com/).

Both DW Groethe and Ken Cook are a part of The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Four (2009) from CowboyPoetry.com ($20 postpaid from CowboyPoetry.com, Box 330444, San Francisco, CA 94133; http://www.cowboypoetry.com/).