Smoky Hoss Poems

We all are estranged to life
in ways far beyond ourselves,
no matter how persistently we wonder
it never forgives us for being.
...

Blue is the sagebrush
at early dusk.
-There is a ghost
upon the Western wind
...

I haven't had a good conversation
since I don't know when.
It's a sign of the times
and the shape I'm in.
...

Keep our gratitudes higher than
our expectations,
and peace shall show -
Where we are going
...

Life is furtive.
Never quite this.
Never precisely that.
How oft the sacred sadness comes.
...

Unfinished dreams
Lay immured in melancholy
-the saddest mystery, of all human folly-
The feeling like fall
...

I have seen the wonder of wilderness
The great beauty of the West,
I have trod the seductive sands
And crawled upon the redemptive red rocks,
...

-It would seem, I've run out of words.
Nothing left to say.
I have lost my inner voice.
It's gone, completely astray.
...

Damn the wrinkles
And damn my hide,
I know this old mirror is
Filled with lies-
...

We've closed the gate
The mules are done hauling frieght,
The hands have penned all the cattle...
While the train's running just a little late.
...