Best Ranches Poems

Some modern folks, when they hear his name,
will roll their eyes and look ashamed,
thinking the cowboy is uncivilized,
with his hats, and guns, and round-up rides.
That somehow they are beyond the stuff,
to good for the wild, and the rough,
following some unwritten ‘elite’ law,
suppressing the urge to...

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Those walls of my captured annals falling
By steel leviathans devouring my solitude
Capped blasts dropping the once proud structure
No longer is a mans home his palace

Histories cowboys are the future’s vagabonds
Their ranges of ranches a dying lot
Borders now shrinking as the rooms collapse
Giving into the fear...

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In a little West Texas cow town years ago
There was an  old doctor by the name of Hill
Little man, mild mannered, cheerful until made mad
He doctored old cowboys and drunks when things got slow
His usual cure was a kick in the butt and a...

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The Whittlers

The stately county courthouse was their usual meeting place,
a columned Greek Revival, and a lovely public space.
They sat upon their benches under lofty pecan trees,
wood shavings on their ankles and some cedar twixt their knees.

Those old boys were called the whittlers, but that was...

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Year five of the Great Depression. 

April 14, 1935 another Sunday of church services praying for
The rain that wasn’t coming.

And the sky turned mean and angry, as daylight was obliterated into The blackness of night. The wind scoured the land, sweeping 
Everything in front of...

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THE GREATEST GENERATION
by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS



Many Have Called Them the Greatest Generation
They Had Struggled and Survived, an Ugly Depression
It Was an Era of Hard Times and Simple Diversions
Like Bank Night, Singalongs  and Picnic Excursions
Band Concerts under the Gazebo, in the City Park
Unemployment at Twenty Five...

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Imagine hills where 
landscapes slide into 
heavens
Dews and hues 
romancing its ranches
A decor of devil's bow in 
soft tone
A cascade of bays 
blending
A steaming geothermal 
spa amid black lava fields
Thawing snow tumbling
Glitzy huts emerging from 
riviera
Echoes of villagers 
sparkling the harmony of 
the wind
Howdy tourists...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                               ...

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I'm on my way to Butte Montana, 
where the mountains reach the sky, 
and the eagles soar way up high, 
folks are friendly and give you a smile, 
it's the Montana way of saying stay awhile. 

I'm on my way to Butte Montana, 
need a...

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Some people have palaces, castles and mansions
too. Some people have big houses, farms and 
ranches. They seem to live Happy - at least 
others think they do.

For some reason God gave us, what He did. He
didn't give us more or less then what He thought
we...

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The force of my thoughts is a force to report,
Attention, no Deficit, Hyperactive, no Disorder, call it slaughter
when Hyperfocus onslaughts play hocus pocus with my thoughts,
a tornado, a hurricane a monsoon loom and taunt
a brainstorm of sorts in a sonic boom I'm caught.

My brain storms...

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A Horde of Haiku

A horde of Haiku
Is what will be found when you
Read all of mine through.

What if embittered
And all your patience is lost
It could be costly.

Leaves are on branches
Cattle exist on ranches
Are there some to spare?

(Can questions be part of haiku?)

Books do have pages
And...

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She was a wily cigar chompin' gambler with the moniker of Poker Alice,
Renowned throughout the west for her skill in many a gamblin' palace!
Poker Alice had a good head for countin' and with her very cunnin' guile,
(Plus her beauty), she mesmerized her opponents, amassin' quite...

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SAVE MY MOTHER, AFRICA

Poor Africa, why have you allowed your ancient precious priceless beads taken away frm you while coveting after a common coated carved stones from the foreign land?
Where were you when your artifacts were shipped to the land behind the oceans
And your Children...

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Ponytails and blue jeans 
Sat at Papaw's knee, 
Watching as he whittled 
On old branches from a tree. 
    And while he talked of cowboys 
And big old Texas ranches, 
He trimmed away the rough spots, 
While I dreamed of pony dances....

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