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Not cowboy poetry, but
Equine Poetry
Cowboy poetry has gotten a lot of press. But equine poetry, celebrating horses and a horsey lifestyle that has nothing to do with punching cows, and everything to do with love of horses and love of having a relationship with them has gotten far less press.
Muffin Dog Press intends to devote some ink to the cause of Equine Poetry, and is soliciting contributions to an equine poetry book. The author of Beginning English Rider's Companion has penned a few lines over the years; one appears at the right.
Contributors whose work is included in the book will sell only first rights to Muffin Dog Press for a small (and we do mean small) honorarium. But, it is a chance for writers/riders to break into the poetry/publishing world, and for aficionados of either, that's a valuable thing. Plus, as noted, we only want first rights, meaning you can resell or reuse your work once we've got it into print any way you want.
Send your poem within an email (no attachments; they will NOT be opened) to:
Editor@muffindogpress.com.
Contributors whose work is chosen will be notified; others will not. No paper entries please; they will not be acknowledged nor returned.
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Excerpt, continued:
Beginning English Rider's Companion
***
Finally, a horse is a horse, as Joe E. Lewis pointed out through humor. It will always be a horse and can be taught only minimal 'tricks,' both because of its nature and its conformation. In short, it will always be for mankind a reminder that while we may be the most intelligent of the biological creatures on earth, there are still some things we cannot do. One of those is teaching a horse to float on his back. It is physically impossible, and only a fool would try.
Basic riding theory and philosophy, developed in all the years since the time of Xenophon, takes the nature of the horse into account. We realize we must work with exactly what is in front of us to get the desired result. It is as hopeless to ask a horse to be other than he is as it is to marry someone we intend to change. Indeed, in either sort of relationship, the only thing you could get out of the attempt would be failure and hard feelings on both sides. In the case of teaching a horse to float on its back, you'd get spectacular failure, and possibly an injured or dead horse from the attempt.
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A Question of Horses
By Laura Harrison McBride
On the hill, the horses. Necks
craned round, manes
cascading forward
down slopes of their necks,
slopes like the hills.
Spindly legs,
bearing so much bone, muscle, sinew and
not much fat. Working horses, these,
for people who jump them.
Why? So high. To prove a horse
can? A person
can? For thrills?
For whom?
For humans who do it once, or would
could they just.
Huge curved teeth snag tufts of grass.
Big-cheeked faces turn sideways
for a glimpse, of what? Looking all round, almost.
Curving, moving on. Slopes awash
with horses, heedless of
the questions that they pose.
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Muffin Dog Press is accepting contributions for a book of equine poetry. Rhymed, free verse--anything wonderful about horses. To submit a poem for consideration, please send it, pasted into an email, to Editor@muffindogpress.com. In subject line, enter Poetry Book.
Thank you.
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Copyright Muffin Dog Press LLC 2008 All rights reserved.
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