RON LOOF
Colorado Springs, Colorado
About Ron Loof
One of
Recognized for his poem, The Last of the Herd
About Ron Loof:
When we asked Ron Loof to tell us about himself, he replied: "Well, I don't know what is interestin' enough about me to be able to print, but I guess it could say that I'm a 35 year old husband and father to two beautiful daughters, and that this is really the first time I've ever written anything for public viewing. I love cowboy poetry, but I've always loved it from a reading or listening standpoint and not a writing standpoint, up until recently."
We asked Ron Loof why he writes Cowboy Poetry, and he replied: I guess I just have some thoughts that I need to get out. I do better expressing my thoughts in written form than I do speaking them; always have, always will, I guess. I was born and raised on a farm, always been around livestock of some kind or another, and cowboy poetry always struck me as the most honest form of prose. There ain't much of that la-dee-da type of attitude that you see so much in more "classical" forms of poetry. I can only truly write about things which are very close to my heart ,which limits me on topics to write about, but I also never "fake" a poem, if you know what I mean.
You can email Ron Loof.
The Last of the Herd
The old buffalo walked slowly
Looking for a place to settle down
To hunker down and rest a bit
On a warm patch of ground
Out in the distance the storm clouds
Were building up again
Looking dark and forbidding
And as ugly as sin
It had been a rough winter
All the way from last fall
But this old bull had seen more rough winters
Than he cared to recall
Right now the old fella
Just wanted to lay for a spell
He was old and tired
And he wasn't feeling real well
He found himself a spot
That seemed extra warm and dry
And let himself down
With a grunt and a sigh
As he lay, he let his mind wander
Back to the journey that had been his life
All the days he had lived
Through good times and strife
The warm summer days
Spent grazing on grass
The long cold winters
That never seemed to pass
The rituals of spring
The mating and the fights
The brisk winds of fall
And the ever-longer nights
He had seen it all
Had this old guy
Many, many moons
He had seen pass by
He used to run with others
His friends and his kin
But they were all gone now
Taken by bloody men
They used to cover the plains
And they sounded like thunder
But now he's alone
All the rest had gone under
He had watched them all die
In bunches and ones
Slaughtered by those hunters
With their big roaring guns
So now he's the end
The last of his kind
And the only place he saw them
Was in the back of his mind
So he laid there and thought
Of the times he had known
A solitary warrior
Living all alone
The wind suddenly grew colder
As the snow started to fall
But over the rising wind
He heard a familiar call
It was the call of the Herd
Home he knew he must go
It would be warmer there
There would be no more snow
So he closed his weary eyes
Laid down his grizzled head
And in just a few seconds
The old buffalo was dead
He's free to roam forever
With his family and friends
On a prairie with no winter
Where the grass never ends
The old bull lives now
In the fields of the past
And I can still see him
When my mind I cast
They say that the buffalo
Were big, dumb brutes
But to me, they're America
They're a big part of my roots
I love those big creatures
And I know they're not all dead
But there used to be millions more
Close to extinction they were led
Sometimes I wish I lived
In those olden days of yore
So I could see those vast herds
The way they were before.
The Old Cowboy
My sister died in '96
In the state of Washington
Of all the blows I've taken in life
I think that was the hardest one
The cancer came and took her down
And carried her away
We shared a birthday, my sister and I
I miss her to this day
They turned her into ashes
And spread her on the water
She was the last female in the family
My mother's only daughter
I was fixin' to go back home
When my brother-in-law said to me,
"There's something your sister wanted you to have,"
"Her horse, ol' Buster Lee."
She knew I'd take ol' Buster
He didn't have to ask me twice
I decided I'd ride him all the way home
The gesture seemed...well, nice.
So I saddled him up and climbed aboard
He's a strong and mighty beast
I said goodbye to family and friends
And pointed his nose to the East
The first few days I don't remember much
Of that long and lonely ride
I know that I stopped to eat and rest
The rest of the time, I cried.
We made it out of Washington
And into Idaho
By the time we got to Montana
It had really started to snow
We pushed ahead, ol' Buster and me
Until the snow got really deep
I decided we should pull up and rest a bit
Maybe find a warm place to sleep
I decided I'd go up to the first ranch
That Buster and me saw
If we didn't get out of the snow soon
They wouldn't find us 'til Spring thaw
So I rode up to a rundown ranch
Nothing more than a house and a shed
Looking for some coffee, maybe
And a warm place for us to bed
I knocked on the door, and after a bit
An old man opened it to me
It was snowin' like Blazes right about now
A visitor, he didn't expect to see
He invited me in, and gave me a seat
And black coffee in a big blue cup
He took Buster out to the barn
And lovingly put him up
He asked my business, where I was going
In this nasty sort of weather
I told him my story, what I was doin'
His face crinkled up, like old leather
He said he knew how it felt
To lose those that you love
His dear wife Esther went five years ago
She nows lives up above
"I got a son," he said to me,
"He lives out Ohio way,"
"I hear from him 'bout once a year,"
"On every Christmas Day."
His daughter married a banker
They live in New York city
He don't hear from her much either
It surely seems a pity.
We sat there and talked, and shared our stories
Until I fell asleep
I think I slept about 12 hours
I ain't never slept so deep
When I awoke, the snow was still flyin'
So we chatted for hours more
We played some cards, and shot the breeze
Since the weather was so poor
We spoke of news of the world
And views of the state and country
He had a phone that never rang
And he didn't have a tv
We talked of things that we had done
And things over which we had toiled
We discussed how we liked our eggs done:
Mine fried, his boiled.
We passed a whole 'nother day
Sittin' chattin' at the table
We talked about sports
While I was brushin' Buster in the stable
By the next mornin', the skies had cleared
And the sun came up strong and bright
I figured I'd better get back on my way
I'd make some miles by night
The old man didn't want me to go
I could see it on his face
I guess he enjoyed my company
I brought life to the place
I told him I'd come back for a visit
In the later part of Spring
That helped to ease his mind somewhat
And lessen leaving's sting
So I saddled up ol' Buster
And prepared to ride away
I didn't want to wait too long
He might ask me to stay
Before I went, he lent to me
A beat-up lookin' duster
A little jerky, and some coffee
He said, "It's the best that I can muster."
I told him then, and I mean it now
It was a pleasure to keep his company
I was a father short, for several years
And I'd be honored if "Son" he'd keep calling me
I thanked him kindly, and wished him luck
And set out on my way
I didn't even look back
I had nothing more to say
When I crossed into Wyoming
The weather again got rough
Snow was flyin', and wind was blowin'
I had run fresh out of tough
So I called the wife and had her bring
The trailer and the truck
Snow was so deep by the time she got there
We about got the dang thing stuck
When I made it home to Colorado
I vowed to go back again
But not until the warm weather broke
Being smart shore ain't no sin
'Bout three months later, I went back up
To see my dear old friend
I drove up to the ranch house
On the door a note was pinned
It was all wrapped up in plastic
To keep it from the wet
On the front, it said, "Son."
I knew who the old man meant
I opened that note with shaky fingers
Afraid of what I might see
Turns out the old man left the note
Just to be sure to thank me
It said that he'd got feeling bad
A couple weeks after I'd rode away
He was going into town to the doctor
To see what he would say
I went to town to try to find
The old man who was so kind to me
The lady at the doctor's office
Told me to look in the cemetery
So I went down to the buryin' ground
The old man's headstone said:
"Just an old cowboy, lived a good life"
"Father of THREE," it read.
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