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This first poem was given to me by South Wind. He was not the author but we both loved it so much. I hope you do too.
The Mountain Man
By: Jacob Nowland
Long years ago there once was a time,
When Grizzlies were plenty and Beaver
was prime.
Injuns were hostile and so was the land,
But he conquered them all, The Old Mountain Man.
Now
many's the tale of deed that he done
With Muscle and grit and a big Hawken gun.
In the mountains, the prairie, the
hot desert sand
There's many a track from an Old Mountain Man.
Their names are like music to a knowing mans'
ear
And I'd love to have been there in a long ago year
At the Green, or Bear Lake, or Old Jackson Hole
When They'd
rode in to Rendevous to call The Great Role.
Say!! There's Old Bill Williams.
He's crazy some say.
And here's
Peg-Leg Smith and Cut-Face Sublette.
And Bad-Hand Fitzpatrick with hair white as snow,
Jim Clyman, James Pattie, Old
Robidioux.
Hugh Glass won't make it. He bought it last year
Up on the Yellowstone, Arikaras I hear.
But Jim
Bridger's here, and Half-Breed Ed Rose,
And yonder's Joe Walker, I can tell by his clothes.
And Look comin' in
down by the creek
Mariano Modena, Jed Smith, and Joe Meek.
And Who's that kitten with Milton Sublette?
North West
man ain't he, Kit Carson you say?
Johnson Gardner and Jim Baker are last to arrive
They've lost all their truck,
but at least they're alive.
Yes I'd love to have been there right from the start
And spread on the ground these tracks
in my heart.
But it's not too late for a kitten like me,
I'll follow old trails, there's plenty to see.
I
know he was first to open the land
But he left room for me, The Old Mountain Man.
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