Monday, January 16, 2012

Too Seldom

Hopefully this starts my posts off with a bang and they'll get better from here. It's just a draft, so if you have critiques, please don't hesitate to take an inky scalpel to it. Thanks!



Too Seldom


Too seldom have I sat
On the back of a bay stallion
Just comin’ over the rise
As the sun sets of the far hills
And the horse is huffin’ and wheezin’
And his hot sides against my legs move
In and out like great bellows
And we both know we ain’t caught the sun.
Naw, not this time,
But the bay and I both know
We’re gonna ride it down
One of these here days
And I’ll throw a loop around it and pull
And tug and get it back up in the sky.
Too seldom have I just sat
And watched the sun gettin’ away again
And patted the thick next of the horse,
My hand comin’ back all hot and damp
And I can’t help but laugh and
Put a new dirty spot on top of
All the other dirty spots
As I drag my hand across my jeans.
Too seldom have I sat
And counted the stars
Peekin’ out one by one like owls
Makin’ sure it was night really,
That the sun ain’t just gone behind a cloud,
Little ground-owl stars pop out their sparklin’ eyes
Down there on the horizon where we last seen the sun
Scamperin’ off with its great blazin’ tail
Tucked snug between its legs.
Higher up, big barn owl stars and screech owl stars
Blink into life, bright and cold and lovely
And a million years away.
Too seldom have I just sat
And tugged the reins back and headed home,
Ridin’ through an upside-down world
Where everything that’s beautiful is above me
And far too far away
And everything that’s alone and ghostly is down below
Waitin’ for life and
Somethin’ worth lookin’ at to come along.
Too seldom have I sat
And let the horse find the way back home,
Not carin’ too much one way or the other
If we ended up somewhere strange and new
Full of danger and straight answers
And everything that ain’t none of us never knew
The stars lookin’ down on the both of us
Like some dusty old judge, tired and half-blind
To the world and the truth
Just wantin’ to condemn some poor ornery fool,
Long as it means he ain’t gonna miss supper.
Too seldom have I just sat
Eyes closed and heart open
Tryin’ to remember who it is I am exactly
Or maybe who it is that I was once
And everywhere I was supposed to go
And all them things I was supposed to do,
Assumin’ I didn’t get lost along the way,
Stumblin’ off the trail after some mirage
Called Love or Money or Happiness.
Too seldom, you know?
Too seldom. 

2 comments:

  1. Wow... you must really want to be a cowboy.
    But seriously, I really think that this poem calls us back to the simpler times and how much we miss, or should miss, in this modern lifestyle we all embrace.

    It's kind of long, but my favorite lines are at the end:
    "Too seldom have I just sat
    Eyes closed and heart open
    Tryin’ to remember who it is I am exactly
    Or maybe who it is that I was once
    And everywhere I was supposed to go
    And all them things I was supposed to do,"

    I want to be that person who takes the time to close my eyes and open my heart. At the end- your question "too seldom, you know?" makes me really agree with you wholeheartedly. I think that's cool. At the beginning of the poem, I didn't even know I wanted to be a cowgirl...but I guess I do!

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  2. I keep coming back to these lines...
    "And everything that’s alone and ghostly is down below
    Waitin’ for life and
    Somethin’ worth lookin’ at to come along."

    We're never truly content. Not when the horizon holds untold promises that could be explored if we didn't have so many ties to the distracting, often fleeting things we chase after. I appreciated the voice of this poem as I became lost in the insightful drawl of this cowboy.

    ReplyDelete