"Over the Desert" Poem

Miles of red sand stretchin' out under the sky
I look to the horizon and wish I could fly
Over the desert, to have it far behind
To close the distance between you and me.
A thousand cactus plants I'd see
If I flew
Over the desert
To reach you.

But if I could be there
In just a moment, with you, dear
Would you welcome me
Or send me away?
Perhaps in the end
It is better that here
On the desert I always stay.

© 2019 Western Reservoir

Sunday ~ Poem ("Heart of God")

Isn't this what draws many of us to to the "Old West?" Don't we somehow sense that God is closer to man through nature? The West attracts us because of this, along with the simple fact that it is history, which encourages us to keep pushing on through the future. There are many other factors in why we love the Old West and everything that has to do with it, but maybe no factor more important than this one.

In today's busy world, we enjoy dwelling on the stark reality—and idealized fables—of the Old West through movies, music, books, and the great empty places that still exist almost like they did when the mountain men and pioneers journeyed there.



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"Heart of God"

I see the canyon and the waterfall
I see the heart of God in it all
Mountains high and pine trees tall
The wolf's cry and the bird's call
All announce that this, this is grand!
And that only God could have made this sort of land
The ocean waves and the desert sand
Know they were crafted by God's careful hand.

©2018 by K.J. Bruce

Eyes of the West poem

Eyes of the West


He'll do the best he can.
He walks down the dusty street.
A man waiting there with a six gun 
He is looking for, to meet.
He is looking for him to do what he must --
The other man must
Bite the dust

'Cause that man, he is a bad one
He kills without a thought
So the lawman walks the street
And with his eyes he sought
The life of that man, and found it,
And with his eyes he fought.



A man up in the mountains
Rides so hard for help
His wife she is a-dying
And she needs the doctor's help

So he rides down through the pass
He rides down through the vale
As he goes, a face he sees
Feeble, weak, and pale

That face, it drives him onward
Through the blinding snow
Though he can't see ahead of him
He knows just where to go.
He finally reached the doctor's home,
And with his eyes, he rode.



This man, he sees a sight
That is breaking his heart
He watched the white man come
And many towns start.

He watched the grassy plains
He loved so well, dissapear
The wagons came, away went the game
The buffalo, the antelope, the deer.

He sits all alone, and simply sighs
As time goes on, you'll know
That as he watched,
With his eyes
He dies.




© 2017 Western Reservoir

Dust poem

So many stories, songs, and legends about the West center around man's fight against the harsh elements of the desert. Songs about the sun, dust, and the cool water that wasn't there. How many songs or yarns can you think of that tell about these things? 

Pixabay Image

Dust


  Dust --
  Swirling
  Driving
  Blinding.

  Dust --
  Gritty
  Sandy
  Dry.

  No water has found
  This barren wasteland ground
  No water has touched its dusty sand
  And no one around
  The nearby desert town
  Will cross the desert land.

  One man throws aside
  The warnings right --
  The others tell him they are true
  But he says he will cross
  That barren wasteland soon.

  At first, the ride seems easy enough
  But then, at about noon
  The going gets tough.

  Dust --
  Swirling
  Driving
  Blinding






  O, dust so dry!
  O, dust so harsh!

  Water would be his most welcome friend
  Or perhaps death, his life to end
  But there he hovers in between
  With no water to give him relief
  No death to save him from the agony of thirst.

  Nothing but dust,
  Dust only and dust first.





©2017 by Western Reservoir

I Can Be a Buckaroo

I Can Be a Buckaroo  
  
The west is gone, no time to call
      On your neighbor's house for tea
Everyone's busy sitting in front
      Of their wide screen TV
But where, oh where, when they're glued there . . .
       Does that leave me?

Can't find a space big enough,
       The cities sure spread out
Can't find a place far away enough
       For me to be by myself.
The frontier is gone, but I've got news for you
      As long as the coyotes howl, and I've got my pony pal
      I can still be a buckaroo

The west is gone, no time to sit
     And watch the sun go down
Without checkin' your 'phone,
     And sendin' a note,
     Of a picture of yourself
But I don't care, if that's what you do,
     It's A-OK with me.
 
Can't find a space big enough,
      The cities sure spread out
Can't find a place far away enough
      For me to be by myself
The frontier is misplaced, and what we value is, too
        But as long as I can watch the sun, sinkin' o'er the trees
        I can still be a buckaroo

The west is gone, no cowboys come,
     On horses to save the day
They're out there yet, if you could find 'em yet
    And take their video games away
They'd be glad, I am sure
    In the long run, if they'd see
The kind of life -- a cowboy's life
    With only a herd of cattle for company.

Can't find a space big enough
     The cities sure spread out
Can't find a place big enough
     For me to be by myself
The frontier has changed, and the cow-folk have, too
     But as long as I can still pretend,
     I can be a buckaroo.

©Western Reservoir 2017

Look to the West poem

Pixabay image

Here I see the traces

Of wagon ruts and trails

Here I see the places

Where the wide, long wind

From the ever-distant West hails.

Ah, those places

I have never seen, yet know!

And, oh, for the places,

Where my heart is yearning to go.

But here there shines

Like a gleaming jewel

A sliver of spirit that adds

To my smoldering hope, fuel!

Here I see that others know

And will, through this, come to attest

That in all this world, you will never find

A place like the ever-wild West.

©Western Reservoir 2017

Cattle Drive poem

Layin' on the praire
Lookin' at the sky
If I said I wasn't lonely
I'd be telling you a lie.

I'll ride when it's over
Ride home to Denver.
And then I'll see the one I love
The one I know is waiting for me.

Cattle ain't good comp'ny
I learned that right away
Those stampedes they run on
Taught me how to pray

I'll ride when it's over
Ride home to Denver
And then I'll see the one I love.
The one I know is waitin' for me.

Wound up in a small town
The fellows found the bar
Durin' the hour that followed,
Home has never seemed so far.

I'll ride when it's over
Ride home to Denver
And then I'll see the one I love.
The one I know is waitin' for me.

She be as purty as the mornin'
As lovin' as she could
If I could see her right now
I sure-as-shootin' would.

I'll ride when it's over
Ride home to Denver

And then
I'll see
the one
I love
The one
I know
is waitin'
for me.

© 2017 by Western Reservoir

Roy Rogers Movie poem

 
  The sun slips over the horizon
  Leaving a dusky bliss
  The sight is worthy to lay your eyes on
  Surely something you don't want to miss.
  And, as the sun goes down
  It leaves behind it
  A sense of peace in the town
  A campfire burning bright,
  Illuminates the camp
  And their faces with its light.
  A song they do play,
  And laughter so gay,
  Fills the shadowy night.
  They are satisfied, and as for me?
  I sorta wish life could be,
  Just like this Roy Rogers movie.

  I want to see The Lights of Old Santa Fe
  And to dream Under California Stars
  I want to live in the Days of Jesse James
  And hear The Sons of the Pioneers sing
  To the music of their guitars.

  Utah is grand, and Colorado is, too
  And Idaho, and Southward Ho
  For in them you always know,
  That The King of the Cowboys will come through.

© 2017 by Western Reservoir

Cowboy David

Cowboy David


David was a fighting man,
But he grew up tending sheep
And long into the night you could his harp,
As he played those critters to sleep.
He was a handsome young fella
Full of God's strength, and grit
He killed a lion and a bear that was after his sheep
Out there in the wide, wide wilderness.

When trouble arrived in Israel
When the Philistines came
The king had to look high and low
Tryin' to find a man that was brave.
Cause someone had to fight Goliath
And no one wanted to be killed!
But David knew that with God's strength
He could do what God and the king willed.

So David killed that towerin' giant
And skeered off the rest of his band.
A couple little stones and a leather strap
Was all that he held in his hand.
But he used a Power mightier than those
A-built out of metal or wood
He called on God's name to help him
Like, I guess, we all should.

As time rolled by, David became Israel's king
And although he sometimes did wrong
God said that David was a man
Who followed after His own heart, all along.
Even when David did things
That God hated for him to do,
God stuck with him through it all
Just like He'll do for me and you.

Now, altho' David was a sheep-man
And tho' you might think it strange—
I kinda think he was a cowboy, deep down
A cowboy formed by the open range.





© 2017 by Western Reservoir