Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
09-20-2011, 03:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-21-2011, 04:01 AM by Leanne.)
I sat down to write a poem
with a country and western feel
that didn’t include redneck bashing
or livestock abuse, or clichéd
blue and battered misery
or – God forbid – a pickup truck
or wrassling steers
or wrangling gators
or singing hallelujah
to a televangelist
So I came up with this:
I like hats
(small edits thanks to Only Rob)
It could be worse
Posts: 40
Threads: 14
Joined: Sep 2011
This is rich. I just love the ending. For some reason, I wanted L-8 to read - or wrangling gators, just for the soundplay. I also might prefer televangelist to TV minister, but what do I know. This peach reminds me of Frank Zappa's "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" in the best of ways.
Posts: 342
Threads: 49
Joined: Sep 2011
An old pickup truck
means you're down on your luck
anymore
and dirty straw hats
are a thing of the past
anymore
they changed all the words,
but the cowgirls, they all sing along
Tell me who's gonna ride us away,
when the last cowboy's gone?
Jamey Johnson
Sorry, Leanne. I thought of this as soon as I read your poem. A lot of the things you wanted to leave out of your poem are my favorite things about cowboys. I like the way you made me think about Country & Western music being based on the mythology of the cowboy himself. An unfeeling, driven soldier of the plains that loves and leaves without regret and kills without fear. That's what country music is about, to me. (Most of the Pop country is shit, just like all the other pop)
The song I quoted is about how the music has become so cliché and the legend of cowboy has faded, being replaced by symbolizing him through images like pickup trucks and of course . . . the hats.
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
(09-20-2011, 10:01 PM)only rob Wrote: This is rich. I just love the ending. For some reason, I wanted L-8 to read - or wrangling gators, just for the soundplay. I also might prefer televangelist to TV minister, but what do I know. This peach reminds me of Frank Zappa's "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" in the best of ways.
Rob, I'll make those changes right away, thank you 
It could be worse
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
AA, I was thinking of you the whole time, honest...
It could be worse
Posts: 342
Threads: 49
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 259
Threads: 45
Joined: Jul 2011
It reminds me of David Allen Coe's "The Perfect Country and Western Song", song. All you left out is a train and dead dog :p
PS. If you can, try your hand at giving some of the others a bit of feedback. If you already have, thanks, can you do some more?
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
Damn. Well, we're only just getting the railroad here in the frontiers you know
It could be worse
Posts: 259
Threads: 45
Joined: Jul 2011
Are you all Crocodile Dundette? :p
PS. If you can, try your hand at giving some of the others a bit of feedback. If you already have, thanks, can you do some more?
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
Oh, Paul Hogan just wishes he was as tough as me.
It could be worse
Posts: 259
Threads: 45
Joined: Jul 2011
I want pics of you in your skimpy outback attire, holding a machete.
PS. If you can, try your hand at giving some of the others a bit of feedback. If you already have, thanks, can you do some more?
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
It's far too hot for clothes in the tropics. It gets all sweaty Down Under.
Now hush, before those damn mods come along with the red pen
It could be worse
Posts: 259
Threads: 45
Joined: Jul 2011
PS. If you can, try your hand at giving some of the others a bit of feedback. If you already have, thanks, can you do some more?
silver_lining
Unregistered
You left out 'marrying your cousin'. 
Well done.
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
 Well now, I have to be careful, we only have a small population here in Australia and I don't want to be casting stones on the incest front... cousins are sometimes the only option we have.
It could be worse
Posts: 239
Threads: 40
Joined: Jun 2011
Hardly the only option...there is always brothers and sisters and other close family members........oh, the poem! It was a really good fun poem, a virtuoso performance. No beans, though. When did you hear of a cowboy without any beans?
Posts: 1,568
Threads: 317
Joined: Jun 2011
Beans are a delicate subject in our house at the moment... the chilli-added variety, to be precise... and settle down, Edward, I've seen the Royal family you know.
It could be worse
Posts: 239
Threads: 40
Joined: Jun 2011
Ad hominem! Yes, they are admirable, aren't they ? I mean Her majesty still working way into her 80s, Prince Philip in his 90s.... the only other occupation which seems to demand this, or death, is that of the Poet. And these royals have had their tragedies, the death in WWII of the Duke of Kent. Australia always gets republican when it feels insecure, you know.
|
