Cowboy Poets Give Tribute To Veterans

By CHERYL JENSEN

The Progress

A group of local Cowboy Poets presented a tribute to veterans at a program held on Saturday, Nov. 12 at the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum. Bruce Bugland, Jim Parsons, Ron Miller, Kathy Smith, Russ Westwood, Ferrel Bott and Bryce Wilson quoted their favorite cowboy poems many of which they had written themselves. Some of the poems were about boys they grew up with who went to war.

Bugland had the audience in laughter when he told about winning his first belt buckle on a “wild horse.” It was so wild he thought his fillings would fall out! “Then I found that the bronco was pugged into the barber shop wall!”
Kathy Smith was introduced as the “wild rose between the old tumbleweeds.”

The poem she wrote is about a frontier wife who prayed her husband would return each night. She kissed him goodbye when he had to leave to drive the herd market. The Indians showed up and she protected herself and the hired hand for hours. When they left, she sent a little note to her husband, “All is quiet now, please send some buckshot, I’ve just about run out!”

Jim Parson had a tribute to all the veterans from the Civil Wat to the present. Interspersed between tales he sang his version of “When Johnny comes Marching Home.”

One verse was in honor of George Davis in his Saber Jet in Korea when he was outmanned six to one fighting MiGs. “He was a Texas boy who kept up the fight/ But, in the end, smoke became his shroud,” Parson said.

Jim’s next verse was titled, “Rodeo Clown.” H knew his stock and saved men’s lives by jumping in a barrel and would get dogged nearly to death by the raging bull. “But it caused our nation pain on 911 and he had a fight of a different foe and now was on a Coast Guard patrol boat.”
Ferrel Bott had a funny punch line to his poem, “Turkey.”

“I noticed their turkey had a wooden leg and asked them how that happened,” he said. “They replied that he dived in and pecked that rattlesnake to death!”

When there was a hay fire in the barn, the turkey raised such a noise that he alerted the family which saved the hay and the barn!
“When you get a bird that smart you don’t eat him all at once!” Bott said.

Lt. Col, Ret., Bryce Wilson, WWII and Korean Veteran, was given a standing ovation as a thank you for his service.
“I am happy to be here!” he said. “ At 96 years old, I am happy to be any place!”

Wilson admonished the audience to teach the children about Lexington and Concord, about the trenches of France, the tanks in North Africa, the beaches in Normandy and the islands of the Pacific.
“Our flag is more than a piece of cloth,” he said. Our Constitution is more than a piece of paper.”

Wilson then quoted Patrick Henry’s speech: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased with the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it Almighty God . . . “

Rus Westwood recited a “Christmas Prayer” describing the handiwork of God in the night sky and the miracle of grass on a lonely plain. “We look up at the night sky and know we have a friend,” he said.

The poem by Omar Barker ended with the lines, “One more thing I ask, Lord, Save some seeds of freedom for the future sons of man!”