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I found my muse in True Grit!




Our assignment for June from my Poetry Scribes of Spokane group was to write a poem about the West.
I am not a west-ern type of girl, by any stretch of the imagination.  I don't watch cowboy movies, or read western books, or even listen to country music... so this was going to be a particularly challenging piece of work for me.  But this is one of the main reasons I love my little group.  I am pushed to write on themes I would never choose for myself. 

So I dug deep and used the remake of the movie True-Grit for my muse.  I actually loved this movie and was truly moved by it.  The last 1/4 of the movie was very powerful.  So, here it goes...

***
Harsh lines etch his sun-stained face.
Harsh binds his heart with delicate scars, like lace. 
…Woven throughout from years of alone,
his horse, the land, no comfort flows-forth what he calls home.

She enters, unwanted, in a drunken dream.
She binds her heart to fulfill her scheme.
Justice for her father in an unjust land.
She boldly follows the lawless band.

Through perseverance she wins her respect.
Determination she shows, despite the men’s neglect.
She is left for dead in a hollowed pit…
while in that lair, she displays true-grit.

The lawless man her heart has bound.
Upon horseback mount carries her …a withering  mound.
Pushing, whipping, foaming sweat…
until the beast’s very life – burst - demise is met.

The broken soldier of land and prairie.
carries his cargo, even tho his bones weary.
He presses forth until his own life… nearly burst too.

True-grit…that cowboy showed, thru & thru.   
***

by Carole Smith

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