Honored Guest Poet; Charlie Russell Poetry Contest - 2005 
                              Rod Nichols


Charlie Russell
 by Rod Nichols

If I could be like Charlie Russell boys,
or a Fred'ric Remington,
I'd paint with words as with a brush,
just the way them fellers done.

I would capture with a few pen strokes
all the wonders of the west,
 like the paintin's that they left behind,
which the Good Lord surely blessed.

I would take the readers way up there
to a Russell high plateau,
and lead them 'long the Great Divide
like a Remington tableau.

I would write of storms and wild stampedes
or a nighthawk in from herd,
and eagle's flight 'cross the western sky
in a wondrous blaze of words.

I would scribe the ways of cowboy life
and the way the West was won,
if I could be like Charlie Russell boys,
or a Fred'ric Remington.
 
Rod Nichols ©2005
 

 

 

 



Charles M. Russell at easel

                              

1
 

About The Author and Honored Guest Poet - ROD NICHOLS says:

    "Howdy.My story began in Nacogdoches,Texas, in the area called "The Big Thicket." It's hard not to have the cowboy way of life influence you if you grew up in Texas. After all, Texas is where cowboys got their start more than a hundred years ago.
 

        I am a public speaker and have performed at Cowboy Gatherings and other special events. I have been published in several books and magazines over the years. Some of these include: Books The Lazy B by Hon. Sandra Day O'Connor, American Food Festivals by Becky Mecuri, The Big Roundup by Cowboypoetry.com and A Little Bit Of Texas my own cowboy poetry book. Magazines and newspapers include: The Wyoming Companion University of Wyoming, Rope Burns Academy Of Western Artists, The American Quarter Horse Journal and a Cowboy History And Performing Society (C.H.A.P.S.) cowboy poetry anthology CD.
 

Awards include : 1st Lariat Laureate of Cowboypoetry.com, A Robert W. Service Award, an H.G. Wells writing award and I was honored to have been a contributing author to the Big Roundup which won the Best Cowboy Poetry Book for the year 2001.I am proud that my book A Little Bit Of Texas received a Will Rogers Medallion for 2003 from the Academy Of Western Artists.
 

The main thing, however, is that you enjoy the presentations here as we revisit the most uniquely American character in our history, The American Cowboy.  . . . "
 
 

                                   WEBMASTER'S COMMENTS:
     Rod Nichols was the recent winner of  the contest conducted by Casey's Corral of Cowboy Poetry, "What Is It That Makes A Cowboy Unique?'  His poem "Cowboy Poetry" was the winning poem. http://wacobelle.org/rodnicholscowboypoetry.htm  For that reason, his new poem about Charlie Russell was not considered  as an entree in this current contest. It is, however,  a poem that Charlie Russell's Stagecoach now proudly presents as the contribution of an honored guest poet.

  What Rod Nichols failed to say in his comments is that he's also the web artist who created one very beautiful web site. And on that web site is a page with one of the most memorable of contemporary poems....ROOSTER!  This is the poem that won for Nichols the 1st Lariat Laureate of Cowboypoetry.com.  Significantly, it is also the site of a second poem about Charlie Russell that was written by Nichols, RUSSELL'S LAND. This is yet another exceptional web page with a background of the Charlie Russell Wildlife Preserve in Montana. You can read both of these poems on Rod's web site, Cowboy Poetry:            http://www.geocities.com/rodnichols.geo/cowboy.html

                                                                              Wacobelle

 

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