Cowboy
Haiku
I
have a fondness for Cowboy Poetry. I
enjoy the fact that overwhelmingly Cowboy Poetry is written by dedicated
amateurs; a spontaneous appreciation for their way of life in the form of
poetry. Almost all of Cowboy Poetry is
rhymed metric verse. And most of it
consists of ballads, storytelling. Some
if it is didactic and opinionated, but for the most part Cowboy Poetry tells
stories, both thoughtful and humorous, about the poet’s life.
Imagine
my surprise, then, when I stumbled across a collection of haiku in an anthology
of Cowboy Poetry. The book is Cowboy Poetry National Gathering: The
Anthology, edited by Meredith Dias, sponsored by the Western Folklife
Center and published by Lyons in 2014.
The subtitle is ’Celebrating 30 Year of Wrangling Words’.
The
poems in the anthology are arranged by author.
The haiku are written by Carolyn Dufurrena (beginning on page 53). In the brief bio it says that she lives on a
ranch in northwestern Nevada and notes that she has published a number of books. The haiku are all on a single theme found in
the title, ‘Notes on Starting Colts’.
Here is an example:
The
days are quiet,
Mares
go to winter pasture.
Colts
finally settle.
His
ears flick forward.
Paint
muzzles for a mouthful,
Trusting
his teacher.
Loop
sails over neck.
She won’t
be like the others.
Up,
up she rises.
All
of the haiku are about training colts.
Reading this one is given an intimate glimpse into the life of a rancher
and her interaction with her colts. Most
of the haiku are seasonal; and the few that didn’t speak to me of season
probably do so for a rancher in similar circumstances. The approach to haiku is syllabic; they are
all 5-7-5, with a few plus or minus one syllable. Dufurrena capitalizes all the
first words of all the lines, using the traditional approach of English
poetry. Most of the haiku are in two
parts, though the juxtaposition effect is minimal. Full sentences are the norm. More than a few of the haiku contain two or
even three full sentences.
The
haiku are in what I think of as a ‘plain’ style. There are no metaphors or similes, no figures
of speech. None of the haiku rhyme. They are like snapshots of the author’s
moments of training her colts. There are
21 haiku arranged in five groups. Each
group is focused on an aspect of training.
Taken together the haiku tell us a story, though each haiku can stand on
its own. The story is kind of a sketch,
an outline, but it is there.
I am
fascinated by how pervasive the 5-7-5 tercet has become in English language
poetry. You find it in unexpected
places; like an anthology of Cowboy Poetry.
This tercet has become a major vehicle for poetic expression in 21st
century English. You can even find it
out west among the ranchers and their colts.
She
leads easy now.
This
season’s work is finished.
Until
springtime, then.
Cowboy
Poetry National Gathering
The
Anthology: Celebrating 30 Years of Wrangling Words
Project
Editor: Meredith Dias
Lyons
Press
ISBN:
9780762796847
$16.95
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