I liked this NPR story enough to write about it. It is an article about Henry Real Bird, Montana's Poet Laureate. Instead of "talking to schoolchildren or promoting poetry through local libraries, Montana's poet laureate Henry Real Bird decided to carry out his duty the true Montana way. The cowboy and member of the Crow nation is on a 500-mile horseback trip, halfway across the state, handing out books of his poetry along the way." His poetry highlights the nature of his circumstances and his surroundings, you can read some here.
Here's a poem I wrote from this inspiration:
Reading about cowboys who write poetry and have names like Henry Real Bird
and travel Montana on horseback distributing words and stanzas and life.
Seeing it all from the back of a horse, weaving through the tall Buffalo grass
feeling the prairie grasses part in remembrance of the seagrasses they once were.
Shaking hands from above, accepting crushed chokeberries and bannock bread,
trading out horses to stave them from exhaustion.
He distributes his work like salvation,
hoping the seeds take root in the fertile ground of some young Montanan,
so he can complete the cycle too.
“It's a beautiful place when people come and they hug you and they bless you to continue on and asking for a safe journey.”
