Post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines
Here it is April already. So much going on and yet very little at the same time. I do confess, April is a favorite month of mine. There is the harbinger of Spring and it's National Poetry Month.
As work has been extremely busy and I'm a bit tired. I thought I would share some of my poetry, in Haiku form, with you.
Defining Western
Journeying toward an end
Sunset of our lives
Traveling westward
Moving ahead of the sun
Toward all things new
Early pathfinder
Paved way for all who followed
Seeding a new growth
Men riding horses
Women and children also
Mythology tales
Women and children also
Mythology tales
Mountain barriers
Endless prairie and hardship
Overcoming all
Endless prairie and hardship
Overcoming all
(c) Doris McCraw
In as brief a form as possible, I tried to convey what the West and what it means to me as an author and reader. As I write my short stories and novels I think of what it took to move to a new area, put down roots and hold onto what you hoped to build.
In my short story, 'Duty' in the anthology "Hot Western Nights", my heroine Miranda deals with just that issue. Here is a short excerpt:
Miranda Foster climbed the hill overlooking the ranch her stepfather had left her to run for his heirs. Clouds flew across the sky. Standing on the hilltop, she watched a storm building, its track headed toward the ranch house. She didn't begrudge her duty, but by the time her step-brother Byron was old enough to take over, she'd be an old maid.
No one knew she wasn't the owner. It was her step-father's way of keeping the ranch safe. She remembered their conversation. "I know I'm asking a lot of you, but you'll be taken care of."
Miranda thought back on that conversation as she caught movement near the leading edge of the storm. Watching, she saw five specks detach and draw closer. The wind was pushing her back the way she'd come, trying to guide her to safety.
Miranda would not be moved. "You may threaten, cajole, or do me harm, but I will not be swayed from my duty," Miranda sent back to the wind as she waited for the oncoming riders, shotgun in hand. She never left the ranch house without it since the coming of Tate Browning. She stood, a calm determination not to give in.
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Doris Gardner-McCraw -
Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History
Colorado and Women's History
Angela Raines - author: Telling Stories Where Love & History Meet
