Why I Love it Here

Today I opened a can of blueberries; a big #10 can, and drained them to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast and some other thngs. Thinking about a blueberry-cheese coffeecake. Yum. But I also love the blueberry juice; I don't waste a drop. It goes into a pitcher in the fridge.

While I was doing that I thought, "Hey, I haven't listened to the CD I got from Donna." Donna gave me a CD of her husband's poetry for Christmas, and as hectic as things have been, I hadn't had time to listen. Marty is a Cowboy Poet; and the one poem she let me read just tickled me to death. So for Christmas she gave me one of his CDs.

And all I can say is, WOW. Now maybe you don't like poetry, but I do. I used to be considered a poet in my own right; well-published and all. But I got away from it when I started reporting for newspapers and writing my columns; being a poet gave me the ability to turn a phrase and have an impact that most folks can't. I love the written and the spoken word; the rhythmic cadence of life. It's the Irish in me, I guess.

But Marty has a way to make you see what he's talking about; the glorious beauty of the Sandhills, the solitary gravestone, the Not-so-Handsome Man, the woman he's telling about Prairie Grass and Water. And his sense of humor is subtle and then sudden; smacks you upside the head like a blast of cold mountain wind when you top a rise, and makes you burst into involuntary laughter.

Marty's poetry will probably never be read at an inauguration or praised and dissected by professors in the halls of Yale or Stanford. But his poetry reminds me what I love about the West, and why I wanted to move here - specifically HERE, not somewhere else. Like all really good poetry, it inspires you, makes you stop and think, pause and reflect - and evokes a feeling that lasts, long after the words are silent. I'd like to send copies to all of my friends, so they could understand what I feel, what this place and its people are like, and why I love it so. Sadly, most of them would probably say, "I don't like poetry" or not find the time to listen, and then tuck it away somewhere to collect dust. I recognize - and have, all my life - that people who get it, just naturally get it - and people who don't get it, never will. And I'm not just talking about poetry...