Yesterday's Sun And Shadow - Missoula, Montana

Ah, the glorious sun at last boldly broke apart the endless-seeming grey days!

So delighted was I at finally sunshine and shadow that I didn't even mind the inevitable sock scrunch-down down down with each stride of my big winter boots.

Lonely Plains Fenced - Livingston, Montana

"Nowhere, not even at sea, does a man feel more lonely than when riding over the far-reaching, seemingly never-ending plains; and after a man has lived a little while on or near them, their very vastness and loneliness and their melancholy monotony have a strong fascination for him." - Theodore Roosevelt

Fencing the Clouds, Missoula, Montana

“Blue sky, white cloud, the wind, and emptiness,
Deep, deep down the rapids’ sounds echo,
Rim to rimrock roaring flows, of the old river,
A wind beneath two ravens’ wings….”

-From “A Man and a Woman“ by Drum Hadley

Drum Hadley - what a fitting name for a cowboy poet. I'm betting your imagination rendered a portrait of lean and lonesome proportions.

Read the rest of this poem and more of Hadley's poetry here; plus you'll also get the bonus of clean ink and brush illustrations by Andrew Rush.)

Old-Timer, Missoula, Montana

There's somethin' 'bout old fences,
They've somehow earned their keep,
They'll be around from this day hence,
Ain't no need t' call 'em cheap.

They're alot like worn out cowboys,
The scars all tell a tale,
A young man once a ploughboy,
'Till his dreams one day took sail.

A fence can tell a story,
Of days, long since gone by,
A wanderin' cow chasin' her tail,
A cowboy wonderin' why.

That leanin'
fence post,
Sure has some grit,
Outstandin' most,
That seemed much more fit.

That post may be weathered,
And look pretty tough,
Worn where a horse teathered,
It's jagged and rough.

Cowboys is like fences,
Each one has its tales,
Scarred from old fences,
And weathered from the gales.

The point I'm tryin' t' make son,
That fence is worth the while,
It's earned the chance, t' make a stake,
On this ranch for a while.

It ain't about the money,
But that old fence 'il stay,
It sounds a little funny,
But you'll understand someday.

From “Old Fences and Old Cowboys” by
Slim Farnsworth
Read the entire poem here.