RICHARD R. "DICK" HALL
Thermopolis, Wyoming
About Richard R. "Dick" Hall
In October...In Wyoming...
In October...in Wyoming...
You can hear God's clear voice
As elk and deer, by choice
Move down the mountain trails
In search of warmer vales.
In October...in Wyoming...
You can see God's true hand
As He changes the land,
As part of His great rhyme,
From Fall to Wintertime.
In October...in Wyoming...
You can feel God's great plan
As surely as you can
While southward geese fly high
Through a royal blue sky.
In October...in Wyoming...
You can watch God at work
In that high mountain church
Maintaining, directing,
Preserving, protecting.
Coda:
And if you stand quite still
You might just find God's will
In October... in Wyoming...
© 2001, Richard Rankin Hall
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.This poem appeared in American Cowboy magazine in 2002
Uphill and A’gin the Wind
For fifty years I’ve wandered ‘round
Old Wyoming and this I’ve found.
Seems like every trail I’ve ever trod
on this old Cowboy’s hard red sod,
No matter where they all would end,
They was all uphill and a’gin the wind
I’ve gone here, there, over yonder
And it makes my heart grow fonder
For that old state that I call home.
I love to saddle up and roam
But every time, the trail would bend,
I was ridin’ uphill and a’gin the wind.
It ain’t no free and easy breeze
That brings my pony to his knees.
Nope. She’s a mini hurricane
Probably with snow or even rain
That adds to my daily chagrin
While workin’ uphill and a’gin the wind
I need that mountain up ahead
to tell me where to lay my bed.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset.
and I don’t mean to fuss and fret.
But just for once I’d like to wend
On gentle sloping ground with no darn wind
Would it be too much, just for fun
to mosey along in the sun
In a near perfect summer day
And, with the Lord’s help, find a way
To that one trail without an end
That’s neither uphill, nor a’gin the wind?© 2007, Richard Rankin "Dick" Hall
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
Dick comments, "Someone once said that when God handed out gifts to his brave new world, he gave the wind to Wyoming. It’s probably true that for those of us living here, we don’t always appreciate the gift! For many years truckers transiting our state have complained bitterly about every road in the state being uphill and against the wind. That’s a phrase that simply cries out to be translated into a poetic theme and that’s basically what I’ve done. "
About Richard R. "Dick" Hall:
I am a knee-jerk attendee at almost any Cowboy Poet and Music Gathering and in the last year alone (2006), we've attended gatherings in Lewistown, Montana; Alpine, Texas; Thermopolis, Heber City, Utah; and Elko, Nevada. I contribute to Rope Burns, a magazine/newspaper concerned with Cowboy gatherings.
I am an almost life-long resident of Thermopolis, Wyoming. Except for some 30 years away in both the military and civil service, this has been my home since junior high school.
I am married to a wonderful woman, Joy, and am the proud parent of three children--a girl in California, and a boy and another girl in Wyoming.
I am a board member of the Hot Springs County Museum and Cultural Center, a driving force behind the Hot Springs Chapter of "Keeping the West Western!" and a founding member of the Hot Springs County chapter of the Wyoming Cowboy Poets Association.
What's New | Poems | Search
The BAR-D Roundup | Cowboy Poetry Week
Subscribe | Newsletter | Contact Us
Authors retain copyright to their work; obtain an author's
permission before using a poem in any form.
CowboyPoetry.com is a project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, Inc., a Federal and California tax-exempt non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.
