Ode to Horse Manure (A Cowboy Poem)

I learned a lot of wisdom from many a country folk,

With tanned hard lines of years in the sun…of some ol’ cowpoke.

I wish I could go back to my younger years, riding horses through the day,

A bag of feed up on my shoulder, a bullwhip crack to bring ‘em in for dinner, a full buffet of sweet grain and hay.

To ride in the wind with out a care.

To look down at your horse atop a hill-a view you both share.

To feel the strength of a never-ending gallop.

To soar above a country road or to get bucked and land with a wallop!

To feel the heat of the sun and remove saddle and blanket.

So both can enjoy a cool river splash while running out in it.

To ride like there was no tomorrow.

In ancient charge-a memory from some long ago warrior in time, I borrow.

To crash through pine branches that feather around,

Till one is strong enough to send you to the ground.

To laugh and dust yourself off, to do it again.

To ride at a mammoth pace and beat the wind!

To throw a rope over you-you ol’ stubborn cow,

A quick wrap around the saddle horn…you will move and now!

(How do they always get outside the fence anyhow?)

Back to shovel the stable yard clean,

The smell is strong–the sun is mean.

But wait…there’s more, a new fence line.

There’s no way to finish it all today in time.

(We set the last post as the sun stops to shine.)

We’ll string the layers of barb wire tomorrow early, and make it tight.

But for now we walk back through the pasture, in the first of the night.

And you come over though you had a really long ride,

You come over to walk by my side.

A Horse or a friend…I can not tell between,

I just know that with you around…I am a better being.

We get back, and set all the farm tools inside the barrel, in the tack room,

The old Cowboy says, “We ain’t leaving the floor dirty…Get a broom!”

And so…for the night our final chore is done.

Now, long after there is no sun.

And ol’ Cowboy can’t resist to say,

“Did you make sure the troths have plenty of hay ?!”

We look at each other in total dismay.

My old horse gives me a quick smile and turns to go play.

We both go get the tractor to start loading the hay.

It was way too early to call it a day.

“One thing before you go!” the old Cowboy turned to mention.

His eyes peered from beneath the brim of his old Stetson.

“You boys know why there’s so much to do?”

We don’t answer…“Cause God told me to make men out of both of you!”

So…then we turn and walk away.

But, stop to listen to one more thing the Cowboy had to say,

“Just remember if you're gon’na have to walk through the Horse Manure on the ground,

It's much better if it’s coming from your Horse that’s walking around.

Ain’t nothing worse than some poor ol’ Idiot...

Who has to shovel up someone else’s Horse Sh_t!”

Today I look back at the old Cowboy with a laugh and smile,

My old horse has been gone now for a very long while.

I think of the other kid that helped me around the stable,

I wonder what we both will pass on if we are able.

I learned many things back then of where wisdom can be found,

Even from the Horse Manure right there on the ground!

"Wisdom...is where you find it...!" Says: Manly Poetry Man

(*) Copyright © 2009 All Rights Reserved

(*) See below for more background info on this Ode

Howdy! If you've been following my "Manly" Poetry for any length of time...you might be asking yourself...How did this guy come up with writing Poetry in a "Manly" style? Well...it really started here with this poem. Although...I had written many poems over my lifetime...(many are now included in my "Manly" Poetry)...and also many of them are lost for good by now...dern it (Oh well..?!). Manly Poetry Man was born with this poem. This is the one that I hang my hat on...as the one that started it...after I was doing some thinking on it today...as to how in the World...I got this whole train of "Manly" Poetry thinking...going...in the first place.

I like History...and with out trying to sound too cocky...I was reviewing this here Poem...on this day of February 04, 2010...and I suddenly realized that this was my first true; "Manly" Poem...that I wrote under the pretense that: "Poetry is all frilly, fluffy, artsy, stuffy...etc." I have...long been able to rhyme on demand...and in my thinking...or thusly inspired......since I was a kid. I just never found any real use for it. (a longer story that I'm not going to bother you with at this point). Suffice it to say that as a kid...Poetry appeared to be "Really Gay". I don't know any other politically correct way to say it. I do not wish to offend...but, that is how it appeared...as a kid (Now...looking back...I can see that some famous poetry during many a seemingly "never-ending" English Lit. Class...helped intrique me. But, that's part of the longer story).

So..this was my attempt to write "Poetry" in a "Manly" fashion. It started with my approach to Cowboy poetry here in this poem. Being from Texas...and having spent many a summer working at a stable...as a kid...this didn't seem like such a stretch...to go ahead and make a poem with this theme...and combine some "manly-isms" in said poem. Thereby...my inevitably kooky brain went to work on my own personal "Manly"-"Cowboy-ish" poem...in order to achieve a "Manly" Poem.

Well...a lot more thinking came through this poem...and after this poem...which then lead to some immediate and newer poems...that would now be called my: "Manly" poems. This new inspiration was fun...and very amusing to me...as well. So...right after this one...I was inspired to write: "Battle of San Jacinto", "At Fallujah", "U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard", "Oh, to be at VinMar", "At The Threshold Moment", "N. Sabino Canyon Road",...and "Real Men Don't Read Poems". That is how my "Manly" Poetry was first started. (Like I said...I did have a small few Poems lying around...from over many, many years...which were added into the deck.)

Kind of "kooky" to think that an "Ode to Horse Manure" started it all...but then..."Manly Poetry Man"...is slightly kooky...to say the least. Welcome to my Hub Page "Manly Poetry Man" World!

Thank you for reading this lil' ditty...on the History of when I first got started...doing the "Manly" Poetry Thing!