WEST, Don

My Pony and Me

I was filled with confusion

Had bad feelings inside

so I saddled my pony

and I went for a ride

we covered the ground

like a bird on the wing

as my cares fell away

I started to sing

I sang to the coyotes

I sang to the sky

I sang to my pony

and I started to cry

I felt the emotions

letting go from inside

letting cares fall behind me

as ahead I did ride

The tears keep on coming

to the top of the hill

where I reined in my pony

and sat there... real still

we looked out together

on the country below

as I stroked his long mane

nice and easy, and slow

from the back of my pony

my problems seemed few

I gathered the courage

to start life anew

yes, I relished the moment

sat there taking it in

building strength for the future

to start living again

as finally the sun passed

behind a tall hill

the long rays of twilight

gave us both a cold chill

it was time to be going

it was time to move on

cause the time, it is passing

and the past, it is gone

so I clucked to my pony

and moved down the hill

father time will not linger

but the memory will

now I cherish these moments

that's the way it should be

miles of wild open country

and my pony...and me.


for myself

Bones rest here of a mountaineer.

His place another fills.

He gained from life all that he sought.

The friendship of the hills.

(Appalaches)

“You are mine,

you chopped ridges,

you scarred and ragged hills!

I am a part of you,

you are a part of me.

Do you know that a mountain man

has gone from you?

You mountains,

silhouette against

a facing sun-down sky.

Did you feel the surge

of my pulse beat

when I flung myself

on your breast

and sifted your porous soil

through my fingers?

Did you know that

a human soul was there

in stark nakedness

where cold stars shone down

above Troublesome?

Did it mean anything to you

the thing you had done to me?

Do you know that you

have set me free

and made a slave of me?

You Cumberlands,

tender and terrible!

You give men life and beauty,

take life and leave desolation!

Lying motionless

in the misty moonlight,

fringed by a gloaming

sylvan green,

streaked by streams of

silver song.”

Mountain Heritage

Listen

You mountain kid

Old woman or man,

I would call you back

To your heritage …!

Must we, too, be lost

As America is lost

In a thicket of violent greed?

Are we too lost to recognize

Our own broken image?

I would point you back

To an uncertain time in history

When the values Appalachia gave

to the South

And America

were rooted deep

In independence and freedom!

At an uncertain time in history

When civil war clouds darkened

the land

Appalachia held a blazing torch

On the freedom road …!


Home-Coming

And I’ve come back to you,

Mountain Earth–

Come to laugh

And sorrow

And sing–

To dig my songs up

From your soil

And spin a melody

Of corn blades,

Top-fodder,

Crab-grass,

And a clean-plowed furrow.

I’ve come to sing and grope–

With a people who know

Deep songs,

Who stumble up

A long crooked road….

I’ve come because

Your great silent agony

Echoed everywhere

And the weary foot-steps

Of my old Dad

Still sound upon the mountain

Where his sweat dripped down

To water your dirt….