To The Apple Green, Peach Blossomed Skies! Cried Buffalo Bill, Riding Onward Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

on the Western paintings of the Sonoma County California artist, Mr. Perry Cordill

and to the poet, Vachel Lindsey

'The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago.'
Vachel Lindsey, The Flower Fed Buffaloes


it's the code of the West parried against the
apple green skies; in after mirage, the surprise of
pink edging the profile of the rough explorers.
it's tangerine haloes falling aslant of their mythical naysayers. these wranglers, cow-herders, outlaws of
a mystical surmise:

trail-blazing, fresh hued and no rope-trick-
peeling the bark of the scratch art colours
like a stick from the Tree of Paradise

just as if, in a Heavenly gallery they are hung
while God intensified
old movie poster sunsets behind them
or opened an orchid portal on the world as
the artist, the poet, clip-clopped by to register
these incongruities.

standing stock still amid tall grasses
burr ridden, wearied with visions
after hard riding, painting silk on silk their colours-
huckleberried pie pleine aire-
and in the cyclone's eye:

they will astonish small animals;
the snuffling buffalo at the rainbow fed streams
who will never be the same, once, seen in this light-

they are cast in an Eternal Spring
by more than the virtue of the paint dried
on the meadowlark canvases:

vivid, the angels of freedom
have lassoed the dark steers

mary angela douglas 8 june 2014; rev.9 june 2014