Bar-D April 2010: Linda Kirkpatrick
Cowboy Poetry at the BAR-D Ranch
by Margo Metegrano, Editor, CowboyPoetry.com
In April, events are as plentiful as wildflowers. This year they include California’s Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival; Nevada’s 1st annual Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival; Cody, Wyoming’s 2nd annual Songs of the Cowboys; and Washington State’s 7th annual Columbia River Cowboy Gathering.
It’s also Cowboy Poetry Week (April 18-24) and that is celebrated at New Mexico’s 3rd annual Tyrone Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering; the 13th annual Missouri Cowboy Poets Association Festival in Mountain View; Ranch Day at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas; The Heritage of the American West Performance Series in Spearfish, South Dakota; the Cowboy Poets of Utah annual Heritage Dinner; and at many other community events, including libraries and schools.
Ranch-raised poet and writer Linda Kirkpatrick always involves her hometown of Leakey, Texas (population 359) in Cowboy Poetry Week activities. Her poetry and recitations are often featured on The BAR-D Roundup, an annual CD compilation of classic and contemporary cowboy poetry from CowboyPoetry.com, created for Cowboy Poetry Week and released each April. The CD is offered to libraries in the Rural Library Project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, the same non-profit organization that sponsors CowboyPoetry.com.
On this year’s fifth annual CD, Linda Kirkpatrick recites a poem by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950), “The Creak of the Leather”:
The Creak of the Leather
It's likely that you can remember
A corral at the foot of a hill
Some mornin' along in December
When the air was so cold and so still.
When the frost lay as light as a feather
And the stars had jest blinked out and gone.
Remember the creak of the leather
As you saddled your hoss in the dawn.
When the glow of the sunset had faded
And you reached the corral after night
On a hoss that was weary and jaded
And so hungry yore belt wasn't tight.
You felt about ready to weaken
You knowed you had been a long way
But the old saddle still kep a creakin
' Like it did at the start of the day.
Perhaps you can mind when yore saddle
Was standin' up high at the back
And you started a whale of a battle
When you got the old pony untracked.
How you and the hoss stuck together
Is a thing you caint hardly explain
And the rattle and creak of the leather
As it met with the jar and the strain.
You have been on a stand in the cedars
When the air was so quiet and dead
Not even some flies and mosquitoes
To buzz and make noise 'round yore head.
You watched for wild hosses or cattle
When the place was as silent as death
But you heard the soft creak of the saddle
Every time the hoss took a breath.
And when the round up was workin'
All day you had been ridin' hard
There wasn't a chance of your shirkin'
You was pulled for the second guard
A sad homesick feelin' come sneakin'
As you sung to the cows and the moon
And you heard the old saddle a creakin'
Along to the sound of the tune.
There was times when the sun was shore blazin'
On a perishin' hot summer day
Mirages would keep you a gazin'
And the dust devils danced far away
You cussed at the thirst and the weather
You rode at a slow joggin' trot
And you noticed somehow that the leather
Creaks different when once it gets hot.
When yore old and yore eyes have grown hollow
And your hair has a tinge of the snow
But there's always the memories that follow
From the trails of the dim long ago.
There are things that will haunt you forever
You notice that strange as it seems
One sound, the soft creak of the leather,
Weaves into your memories and dreams.
Linda Kirkpatrick performs at events across the West; this year she’s performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and other events. Her most recent CD is Beneath a Western Sky. Find more about her at www.LindaKirkpatrick.net.
The BAR-D Roundup, Volume 5 includes more than two dozen tracks by top poets and reciters, along with vintage recordings (this year includes two by Charles Badger Clark, Jr., and others). The CD is also offered to CowboyPoetry.com supporters and available to the public. Find more about it—along with information about nearly a thousand poets and Western musicians--at CowboyPoetry.com. The site is an on-going gathering, with continuous news, features, event calendars, the best in classic and contemporary cowboy poetry and Western music lyrics, and an e-newsletter.
by Margo Metegrano, Editor, CowboyPoetry.com
In April, events are as plentiful as wildflowers. This year they include California’s Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival; Nevada’s 1st annual Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival; Cody, Wyoming’s 2nd annual Songs of the Cowboys; and Washington State’s 7th annual Columbia River Cowboy Gathering.
It’s also Cowboy Poetry Week (April 18-24) and that is celebrated at New Mexico’s 3rd annual Tyrone Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering; the 13th annual Missouri Cowboy Poets Association Festival in Mountain View; Ranch Day at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas; The Heritage of the American West Performance Series in Spearfish, South Dakota; the Cowboy Poets of Utah annual Heritage Dinner; and at many other community events, including libraries and schools.
Ranch-raised poet and writer Linda Kirkpatrick always involves her hometown of Leakey, Texas (population 359) in Cowboy Poetry Week activities. Her poetry and recitations are often featured on The BAR-D Roundup, an annual CD compilation of classic and contemporary cowboy poetry from CowboyPoetry.com, created for Cowboy Poetry Week and released each April. The CD is offered to libraries in the Rural Library Project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, the same non-profit organization that sponsors CowboyPoetry.com.
On this year’s fifth annual CD, Linda Kirkpatrick recites a poem by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950), “The Creak of the Leather”:
The Creak of the Leather
It's likely that you can remember
A corral at the foot of a hill
Some mornin' along in December
When the air was so cold and so still.
When the frost lay as light as a feather
And the stars had jest blinked out and gone.
Remember the creak of the leather
As you saddled your hoss in the dawn.
When the glow of the sunset had faded
And you reached the corral after night
On a hoss that was weary and jaded
And so hungry yore belt wasn't tight.
You felt about ready to weaken
You knowed you had been a long way
But the old saddle still kep a creakin
' Like it did at the start of the day.
Perhaps you can mind when yore saddle
Was standin' up high at the back
And you started a whale of a battle
When you got the old pony untracked.
How you and the hoss stuck together
Is a thing you caint hardly explain
And the rattle and creak of the leather
As it met with the jar and the strain.
You have been on a stand in the cedars
When the air was so quiet and dead
Not even some flies and mosquitoes
To buzz and make noise 'round yore head.
You watched for wild hosses or cattle
When the place was as silent as death
But you heard the soft creak of the saddle
Every time the hoss took a breath.
And when the round up was workin'
All day you had been ridin' hard
There wasn't a chance of your shirkin'
You was pulled for the second guard
A sad homesick feelin' come sneakin'
As you sung to the cows and the moon
And you heard the old saddle a creakin'
Along to the sound of the tune.
There was times when the sun was shore blazin'
On a perishin' hot summer day
Mirages would keep you a gazin'
And the dust devils danced far away
You cussed at the thirst and the weather
You rode at a slow joggin' trot
And you noticed somehow that the leather
Creaks different when once it gets hot.
When yore old and yore eyes have grown hollow
And your hair has a tinge of the snow
But there's always the memories that follow
From the trails of the dim long ago.
There are things that will haunt you forever
You notice that strange as it seems
One sound, the soft creak of the leather,
Weaves into your memories and dreams.
Linda Kirkpatrick performs at events across the West; this year she’s performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and other events. Her most recent CD is Beneath a Western Sky. Find more about her at www.LindaKirkpatrick.net.
The BAR-D Roundup, Volume 5 includes more than two dozen tracks by top poets and reciters, along with vintage recordings (this year includes two by Charles Badger Clark, Jr., and others). The CD is also offered to CowboyPoetry.com supporters and available to the public. Find more about it—along with information about nearly a thousand poets and Western musicians--at CowboyPoetry.com. The site is an on-going gathering, with continuous news, features, event calendars, the best in classic and contemporary cowboy poetry and Western music lyrics, and an e-newsletter.