I survived the annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora this past weekend and was satisfied with the way my presentation went. This crowd likes to be entertained, and for the most part, humor goes over the best. My poetry was on the sober side, but I think I had them with me the whole way. I tried to make a cowboy connection with World War One since it was Memorial Day weekend. My poem fills two typed pages so I will not try to repeat it in this blog. One part of my poem seemed to really connect with the audience:
"Many horses were killed in battle, too,
and with each explosion that blew
more carcasses piled up in view.
There's been passed along this story
of a horse whose praises should be sung in glory,
he had six deep wounds and an eye that dangled - gory.
His driver wanted to shoot him there by the side of the road,
but he couldn't raise his gun to end the episode
because that horse was still pulling his share of the load."
The poem has sparked memories to burn again among descendants of Grandpa Sandvig's participation in the war. My cousin Andrea Sandvig of New York City stumbled onto my blogging efforts, and when I shared the poem with her she remembered that "Grandpa talked a little about the war to me. He said he hated to hear the horses scream and that he was always thirsty."
This morning's mail brought more interesting information. My Uncle Darrel Sandvig of Moorhead, MN wrote to me of the cowboy connection as he had heard it from Grandpa, "He liked to tell the story about a train load of new recruits came into the camp, and as drill instructors like to do, started yelling at them to hurry, hurry and get off the train now. One of the cowboys said I came into this mans army to fight and I might as well get started now, and with a good right hand decked one of the SGT's. Next train arrived from Montana, they met it with rifles and fixed bayonets."
I capped my poem with my version of Billy Ray Cyrus' song, "Some Gave All" and ended with a guitar version of "Taps." All in all, I think my presentation was fitting and appropriate.
