The Rodeo Years [in Senryu Form] Comments
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cowboy hats and boots
thunder of hooves in the chutes
...an 8 second ride
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Cont....Since childhood, rodeo always fascinates me. When a cowboy rides with his horse it seems to me that there is a unique and amazing bond created.
Great memories of yesteryears so vividly depicted and beautifully expressed in just minimal lines.
Your senryu is great, and it's about something memorable from the years gone by. I haven't had a chance to experience it first hand, only through movies, and now through this fine poem, Thunder of hooves....in 8 second ride.., but the memory stays for decades. I love it.
Thank you, I am very glad you got to enjoy this second hand- -it's an exciting, dangerous, funny life and I am glad to share it. I really must write some more memories down.
honeysuckle rose rising outside my window ...sweet sweet memories . . the horse heaven hills grow farther away with time ...the dreams of our youth It's a marbulous poem.Thanks for shared it10++++++
Thank you for reading- -I keep wanting to add to this poem more moments from the rodeo years but get tied up with other projects. Thank you for your comment and your 10's! ! !
Who knew? Maybe YOU? : ================================= From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Horse Heaven Hills Wallula-Gap-Looking-West.JPG The Horse Heaven Hills along the Columbia River at Wallula Gap; note the dark areas of extensive flood basalts exposed by erosion. Highest point Peak Bickleton Ridge Elevation 4,327 ft (1,319 m) Geography Horse Heaven Hills is located in Washington (state) Horse Heaven Hills Location in Washington Country United States State Washington Range coordinates 46°08′N 119°52.05′WCoordinates: 46°08′N 119°52.05′W The Horse Heaven Hills are a long range of high, rolling hills in Klickitat, Yakima, and Benton counties in Washington located east of Satus Creek and west of the Columbia River between the Yakima River and the Wallula Gap. The hills are an anticline ridge in the Yakima Fold Belt formed by north–south compression of lava flows in the Columbia River Basalt Group. The highest point is Bickleton Ridge (45°59′27″N 120°29′16″W) which reaches 4,327 feet (1,319 m) high[1] near the town of Bickleton at the southwest end of the range. A small paleontological survey in Benton County identified numerous fossilized skeletal remains, proving prehistoric mammoths, bisons, early horses, and other animals once populated the hills. The majority of the skeletal fragments were found in canyons under fine silt and sand. They date from 7,000 to 12,000 years old, with some specimens found to be even older. The higher altitudes where the specimens were found indicate the now extinct animals survived massive flooding that followed the Ice Age.[2] James Gordon Kinney, an early pioneer, is credited with officially naming the Horse Heaven Hills in 1881. He first came to the region in 1857. Impressed by the knee-high grass that fed the large bands of feral horses that roamed, he remarked the area offers excellent forage and comparative isolation... This is surely a horse heaven! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - enough comments are below. BESIDES, it is supper time! bri :)
of course I knew- -I see the Horse Heaven Hills by simply looking south out of the back door of my home.but I thank you for copying and pasting all that background material about a sight mentioned in a physical and metaphorical sense.
This poem bearing an unique title has much impact on readers that I appreaciate it. The flow of the diction has much eloquence and captives. It brings the memories in an interesting manner like... honeysuckle rose rising outside my window ...sweet sweet memories. Amusing one. Thanks.
I keep saying I have to do more with this- - after all I have so many years of memories I can shuffle through! ! ! Thank you for enjoying this brief trip down memory lane, my friend!
Indeed...cowboy is cowboy. Haven watched most of Client Eastwood western movies - my favourite being THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY, I'm able to appreciate this your piece of great elegance. Awesome poem! From a poetess of note. Remain blessed.
Why, thank you, Chinedu, I have been thinking more and more lately about adding more verses to this. Try to add more flavor and grit and aching bones! So pleased you found enjoyment in these lines
Nostalgia plus, Words lassoed so well together that they smell of new born heather, Of deep love, and lasting trust. Just preciously written, refined and sentimental. Images perfection. Amazingly, the reader follows, entirely without objection. '...the dreams of our youth' what a verse! Golden close! Welcome back, Yee Hua!
It is so good to be back! ! ! But, my goodness, am I ever behind on reading and writing replies to all those good supportive people who read my stuff even while I was gone and making no response to anything said.Thank you, Sandra, for your comment- you made me smile as usual especially when you used the word lasso! ! ! ! Yee haw, we ride again!
Beautifully Written! ! ! ! ! Heart Felt! ! ! ! ! Sentimental Write! ! ! ! ! Awesome! ! ! ! ! What Ever So Wonderful Of Memories! ! ! ! ! Very Lucky! ! ! ! ! Reading, , Shut my eyes& This Is Like Going there For Me! So Well Described! ! ! ! ! though i've never been! Thank You So Much For Sharing This Experience! ! ! ! ! 10S! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +
I have been thinking of adding memories to this- I have herds of rodeo memories! ! ! Some painful, some embarrassing, some jubilant. If only my day was a hundred hours long! Thank you Rebecca for coming and reading and commenting with such sweet enthusiasm!
beautiful...i am getting nostalgic....you may read my poem Pre-Monsoon Childen in My village(possibly it may seem to you or really it may be I am requesting in the disguise of modesty) ...where I writes about the boys catching grasshopper for the little Bengal martins to rear them up at home.....really I have the personal experience to pass the time with cowboys in the open land just before monsoon...it is really romantic and pure joy.....though I have not personal experience riding a horse but horse cart...i know what a feeling it provide, , , , , , your verses have a mighty power to bring back us whatever the man we become of stone-heart or dead in soul...to our innocent days....10++++++++
I am glad these little poems gave you a case of nostalgia for days past- - there is much we have lived through that shaped us and formed us and molded us and we should not forget what these events- small or large- - thank you for your comments!
Hi Susan, I find your Rodeo Years still alive in your poems- with the horse heaven hills and the solitary honeysuckle. Sure the images in your poem are quite alien to me in India, especially Kerala. Here it is all green round the year, even the hills! We find horses in the wild-west movies, in the baarats of the North-Indian marriages and of course I have found -watched at long distance-some in the Poonawalla Farms at Poona (Pune) when I lived there. That is it. I am not familiar riding horses, nor comfortable: I tried once or twice on the Marina beach at Chennai. Still, the images in your poems (almost everyone of your poems carry images of horses and horse-rides) do attract me, speak to me one-to-one. That is because, I understand, these images merge with the rest of the poetry seamlessly and they come to you sooooo naturally. That is why the reader too finds them natural. Thank you for sharing this wonderful poem with us.loved reading. And... cowboy is a cowboy. Hats off to cowboy Susan and her blue eyed boy (oh No! horse!)
Thank you for sharing the places of horses in your country - -they are fascinating creatures, aren't they? I admit they often by certain words enter into most of my writings. hahahahaaahahaha, hats off to you for enjoying different lives, different cultures, different poems! Thank you for enjoying this glimpse of my life- - fastforwarded!
Stunningly, beautiful write Susan that conjures up so many lovely images and the sense of lost memories coming to life again, as your enchanting words show us the sheer beauty of memories!
Hazel, I don't know what I would be if I had not had those rodeo years- -fortunately they were not the only source of good memories but they were the source of many of the most exciting! ! ! ! It makes me very happy to share a brief glimpse of them with understanding people like you!
Forgot to say your profile picture is yet another cowboy senryu!
I should write a senryu about that horse in my profile picture who by the way has one blue eye and one brown and while that may be a crazy look he was one of the sweetest well-mannered horses that I was privileged to ride!
Beautiful recapitulation of the glorious rodeo scenes where even the solitary honeysuckle is not forgotten. Eager to join your promised longer ride. Don't mind limping for a while in perfect cowboy style if I get grounded with a thud. (10)
Madathil, you have the soul of an adventurous man- -you would go for a longer ride among hooves, horns, ropes, barrels, and goats. Yes, goats for the ladies to tie up... or not! ! ! Thank you for such supportive remarks and the score of 10! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Lovely ride down the memory lane. The images are vividly portrayed. From the honeysuckle to the hills, everything creates a sense of peace. Enjoyed reading a lot. Thank you Susan for sharing.
Thank you for being a willing rider - I've been thinking of expanding this poem because you and others didn't turn away from the subject matter. Maybe I'll go a little more in depth... and give you all a really thrilling ride! ! ! ! Thank you, dear Nosheen, you are such a supportive person and valued poet.
I do not know anything about Senryu. I don't even know if I pronounce it right. What I do know is that it works beautifully. All dust and cracked leather. Sweet simple sentiments, cowboy is cowboy. No nonsense and yet the slow sigh when daydreams in honeysuckle carry on the winds up the bending grass of the horse heaven hills. I LOVE IT!
Thank you so much, Edmund. It is so pleasing when another poet reads my stuff and falls right into the scenery and feels the emotions that penned the words. I LOVE IT when YOU LOVE IT! ! ! ! !
These are great! Visceral and visual, and taken together, they paint a.glorious portrait of cowboy life and rodeos. I really liked the twinge of nostalgia in the final entry. A perfect 10!
Mj, you made my day! I wanted to give the reader a sense of rodeo life and it sounds like I succeeded. Thank you for responding to the nostalgia in the final senryu and for the 10! ! ! ! !
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7/21/2025 8:16:08 PM # 1.0.0
Cont... Riding with a horse denotes unity in body and soul... A wonderful Senryu. To my Poem List.