By way of introduction >>> I have written 6 lyrics (so far) to songs of the piano player, Frank Mills. I was up on iTunes listening to more so I can compose a lyric for each of my grandchildren. Then I heard this song, "Country Piper" and within 12 bars of music, I jut said, "This has my friend Eric written all over it!" As a lyric whipped up in my head. It didn't take long -  within 45 minutes this is what "came out". Now I ain't no comboy song/poem writer so you'll have to cut me some slack. And you will note I incorporated parts of Eric's poem "Songs of a Cowboy Heart" (in italics) >> I juggled his lines into couplets -- poetic license ~smile~.  It just felt like a complete package --- all dedicated to our good friend, Eric (and Vicki).

YOU MUST HEAR THE SONG or this doesn't really work. It's a 4 megabyte file --- but please take the time. Reading this without the music is just not going to cut it. Save the file to your disk (maybe desktop) then listen and read, please. At the end of the piece is the link to Eric's poem when it was posted at Poetropolis.

http://www.poemtrain.com/azureskies.mp3

A Song For a Cowboy’s Heart
     A Lyric to "Country Piper" by Frank Mills

As he kicks back his chair,
Puts his boots in the air,
And he tells of old times and those tales;
Of a cowboy and his life,
Of his troubles and strife,
As he wonders, “Just where are those trails.”

     The wagons and rigs and rodeo gigs
     Those mountains under deep azure skies;
     With nostalgia his kin, he scratches his chin
     and says, “I just ain’t quite ready for goodbyes...
     not yet!
     I just ain’t quite ready for goodbyes.”

           ... and he wrote

“I chewed dust by the acre in the western prairie-lands 
watched rain flood the wadis even while it vanished in the sands 
Every wind and rock and river has it's part. 
I've always heard the songs of a cowboy heart.” **

Through those words in his poems,
We’ve learned of his homes
Which were under the stars half the time;
Yet things could have gone worse
Now his life’s not blank verse
‘Cause his Vicki has made his life rhyme.

     No more wagons or rigs, no rodeo gigs
     They’re together under deep azure skies;
     With nostalgia their kin, they know where they’ve been,
     And they just ain’t quite ready for goodbyes...
     Not yet!
     They just ain’t quite ready for goodbyes.

           ... and he wrote

           “I've heard a stampede shake the ground beneath my sleeping ear, 
           I kept my seat an' rode to meet the ugly face of fear: 
           It's been my whole life's music, played in lonesome, minor chords, 
           I hope to hear God's angels singin' me them same sweet words” **

** From Eric’s Poem “Songs of a Cowboy Heart”:
http://www.poetropolis.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=471560&highlight=#471560