Long Ranches Poems

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

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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...

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...Todd was surprised by his stern eyes,
he seemed serious about it.
Todd said, “There’s a town two days on,
my horse can take double a bit.

“But I don’t know about this ‘debt,’
I just did what any would...

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V.
Reg did nothing but embrace her,
it seemed like the right thing to do,
she said, “Let’s just go back to bed,
it’s much nicer lying with you.”

The next day, while he was dressing
ro hit the ranches for...

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Faith in politics is not popular.
Other than optimistic civics teachers
and elected office holders,
faith feels troublesome
when mixed with social empowerment
over Others.

"Others" holds and hides broad diversity:
children
women
people of color
prisoners
slaves
indentured servants
pets
cattle
sheep
farms
plantations
ranches
watersheds
melting ice caps
rising sea levels
polluted air
worn out topsoil
sewage...

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II.
Now Reg was good at pressing flesh,
always had a gift for the gab,
in twenty minutes the locals
treated him like the best friend they had.

He bought some drinks, but not too much,
did not want to raise...

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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...

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I was drifting west through old Wyoming,
to see if ranches were hiring,
it had been some weeks since I’d gotten work,
sought a new scene to see what it might bring.

I was somewhere just east of Yellowstone,
the...

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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...

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I.
When Sullivan ‘Reno’ Richards rode into
the small, northern Utah town of Stillman,
he’d been unemployed going on three months
since he’d left his job as a hired gunhand.

He’d turned in his badge to the agency
when his brother...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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I am paradise when my heart sings with riddles that only understood by the responding heart...
I am the rocket only when my emotions backfires the truth that has never been told before...
I am the calabash...

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A man without a car is a poor fellow,
It’s like a cowboy without a horse, a lonely soul,
He doesn’t know what to do or who to visit in the ranches,
He walks alone in Los Angeles...

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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...

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I was born in a very small town in the middle of a vast, vast land. 
It was filled with ranches, cattle and grass and the world’s toughest breed of man. 
I was raised with...

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It was just a "Front", that most were supposed to see
Not a stud on the place, just "mystery donkeys"
Some days they were there, then just up and disappear
Maybe this is the reason this happened to...

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Most old ranches in the West, have a history of their past
Legends and tales about ranching in hard time
Blood, sweat, tears and a lot of elbow grease
The at the 5Y, those days are long past
The...

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I love big ranches, cows and am a boy
Guess that makes me a cowboy
I love women, whisky and wide open spaces
Hanging inside smoky bars and betting on horse races

All this i do to escape what...

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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....

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Ponds paint greenish portraits in rural Indian landscape,
Docile duck rafts do dive-tricks, teasing whale-like buffaloes,
Salmon and tilapia tickle skaters and shrunk snails,
Tadpoles and fries from deadly algae and skaters escape...

Girls in petticoats and boys with...

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It is crazy, it is loco, just like the name
On ranches in the Southwest, it will grow
It is a poison, a narcotic, will drive animals insane
Once they have eaten it for a short period of...

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DELINEATION OF BEAUTY

Mary, you might not be the mother of Jesus 
but you murder other beauty cos you're gorgeous.
Just like Annabella, your hair resonates
with the book character & beautifies my sonnets.
Your lashes slashes the aches...

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Being happy was my wish for cynosure,
in living, I sought either fame or wealth...
having seen the results of utter foolishness;
although I claim nothing, I have everything. 

No villas in Hollywood with a big screen and...

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