Charles Badger Clark Poems

By the rim rocks on the hill
The canyon side is rifted
Where Grasping Gabe, with pick and drill.
...

My love was swift and slender
As an antelope at play,
And her eyes were gray and tender
...

Lay on the iron! the tie holds fast
And my wild record closes.
This maverick is down at last
Just roped and tied with roses.
...

Heart of me, are you hearing
The drum of hoofs in the rains?
Over the Springtime plains I ride
...

All day across the sagebrush flat
Beneath the sun of June,
My sheep they loaf and feed and blat
...

Old camp-mate, black and rough to see,
A hard-worked aid and ally you
In all my single-handed wars
...

I laughed when the dawn was a-peepin'
And swore in the blaze of the noon,
But down from the stars is a-creepin'
...

Two miles of ridin' from the school, without a bit of trouble—
The main road hit her father's ranch as straight as you could fall.
I led her by a shorter cut that made the distance double
...

As I was ridin' all alone
And winkin' in the noontime glare,
I seen a hawse all hide and bone
...

Red is the arch of the nightmare sky,
Red are the mountains beneath,
Bright where a million red imps leap high,
...