Cowboy Legacy & Western Ways

Cowboy Poetry at the BAR-D Ranch
by Margo Metegrano, Editor, CowboyPoetry.com

In July, the weather heats up and so does the world of cowboy gatherings. To name just a few:  the 23^rd California Rodeo Cowboy Entertainment Gathering "Cowboys and Cabernet" in Salinas, California; the 2^nd Bear Lake Cowboy Gathering in Montpelier, Idaho; the 10^th Willow Creek Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Stavely, Alberta; and the 5^th White Mountains Roundup of Cowboy Poetry, Music and Art in Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona.

There will be plenty of entertainment also at the 72^nd National Folk Festival in Butte, Montana; the 98^th Calgary Stampede; Arizona’s 122^nd Prescott Frontier Days; the 100^th California Rodeo Salinas; Wyoming’s 102^nd Cheyenne Frontier Days; and at Riverbend, in Winston, Oregon. National Day of the Cowboy (July 24) events are planned across the West and beyond.

One particularly popular event is Wyoming’s Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering. This year’s, the eighth annual, takes place July 16-18, 2010 (www.grandencampmentgathering.org).  Colorado poet and songwriter Al “Doc” Mehl is on the program there.

“Doc” Mehl, known for his fun and quirky poems and lyrics as well as for his more serious themes, creates lyrical imagery in this poem:

A QUILT IN NORTH NEBRASKA

There’s a quilt in north Nebraska
That’s been sewn into the land;
Rolling grass fields are the fabric,
And the batting’s made of sand.

It’s been trimmed at the horizon
Where it’s pinned against the sky;
Ev’ry stock tank is a button,
Ev’ry windmill is a tie.

And the runs of old barb’d wire,
They are the braided threads with which
Nimble fingers sew a pattern;
Ev’ry fence post is a stitch.

Each square tells a family’s story
Sewn inside a bound’ry fence;
That quilt chronicles a his’try
’Bout the trials of sustenance.

Formed of fabric from those lives,
That quilt will shield us from the storm;
Daytime’s tapestry breathes beauty,
Come the night, ’twill keep us warm.

Pieced a broad mosaic patchwork,
’Tis a blend of life and line;
I should think that some great spirit
Had a hand in the design.

Most folks picture the Almighty
In the image of a man.
But if judgin' by that quilt,
I’d say God has a woman’s hands.

 © 2008, Al “Doc” Mehl, All Rights Reserved

“Doc” Mehl says that the poem was inspired both by South Dakota poet and ranch wife Yvonne Hollenbeck's award-winning quilts (she lives just across the Nebraska state line) and by Colorado poet and writer Jane Morton's poem, "Summer '34." He recalls, "In this piece, Jane describes her mother taking up the art of piecing a quilt to combat the loneliness she felt living out on the eastern plains of Colorado. I can still hear Jane's voice: 'Mom pieced and pieced and pieced some more, that summer '34 / My mother was expecting, and the wind blew evermore.'"

Al “Doc” Mehl’s most recent CD is  I'd Rather Be. Find more about it and his other poetry and music CDs at www.cdbaby.com/Artist/AlMehl.  

In his "other life," “Doc” Mehl recently returned from Ghana, Africa where he was participating in a humanitarian medical mission.  

Find more about Al “Doc” Mehl at CowboyPoetry.com, where you’ll find hundreds of cowboy poets and Western musicians. It's an on-going gathering, with continual news, features, poetry, lyrics, gathering reports, and an extensive event calendar. Come by and stay a while.