A Free Man

A Free Man

Sunday morning, nine A.M.
On the Payette South Fork road
Fifty degrees, crisp Autumn air
As the Aspens turn to gold

Head east towards Lowman
Then north to Stanley, a steady sixty-five
Ponderosas tower beneath blue skies
God, its great to be alive

To feel the cool morning chill
Smell the world you're riding in
To hear the stream along the road
Take a bite of the rushing wind.

The most beautiful ride in Idaho
This Stanley to Ketchum run
Beneath the Sawtooth Mountains
In the warm September sun

A car behind presses me hard
An SUV, black as midnight
It roars around me at seventy –five
Blacked out windows, rolled up tight

The passengers protected from
The sunny world outside
In total, sealed off isolation,
On their sterile, joyless ride.

I pity them, for they'll never know
In their driven, hurried rage
The bite of the wind, the smell of the pine
They are prisoners in a cage.

As for me, I’ll ride until snow flies
Ride as many miles as I can
For as I ride, my spirit soars
On my bike I ride, a free man.

Copyright 2007, Bill “uglicoyote” Davis

Lots of Biker Poems

The internet's largest collection of Biker Poetry by individual poets can be found over at V-Twin Biker. It is growing all the time and QBall has started a fourth page of poetry. I'm proud to say that three of my own poems are the first on the new page.

New from Sorez

This Is Now
~by Sorez The Scribe

There's nothing like a long haul ride
To shake the cobwebs from my mind
Karma finally swayed my way
As I throttle on today
I stayed the course strong and true
Never gave up on being who
I am the Brother I've always been
But doubted myself when downtime hit
Suffered through the loss and pain
Nothing more to lose yet all to gain
I wear my heart upon my sleeve
My Colors proud for all to see
Yeah there's nothing like a long haul ride
To shake the cobwebs from my mind

Nice words from Kano

My Bro Kano over at Kano's Coffee House-Motorcycle and Scooter Talk, has some nice words for this site and my poetry. Kano has some good things to say on many subjects and and his site is worth visiting.

A New poem by D-day Dean

A Dying Soul

I'm dying, I'm dying -

My soul is slowly dying.

You sit in the garage and beckon to me

“Can you come out and play?”

“I cannot,” I say “She has other plans for me today.”

I yearn to ride, to live and be free

But today that is not to be.

I hear your friends roar by – free in the wind

That’s how we were meant to be.

I can't explain how I feel

She just doesn't understand.

Together forever, one with the road

Exploring our great land.

For now, I live for the time that we steal

Exploring the country roads together.

The soul of a biker should never be caged

Running wild with my machine forever.

I'm dying, I'm dying -

My soul is slowly…..

-Written by Dean "D-Day"

Visit D-Day's blog, Musings of a Contemplative Biker

My Column about Biker Poetry

The guest column that I penned is now online at Motorcycle Goodies in the Special Interest section. Check it out. I'm pleased as punch. The same column will appear later in the month in Connecticut Cruise News newspaper. I'll let you know. Props to fellow poet Peddlar Bridges and to MarySusan at RoadHouse Press for their help.

Bikerwolf

Fellow poet and bro biker, Bikerwolf , has made some changes on his site, Bikerwolf's Perspectives, adding a lot of new original work. This southern boy's poetry won't be everyone's cup of tea, but some of it really rings true for me. Check out Vacation Time, Through and Through, and That Was Then. Bikerwolf has what the academics would call verisimilitude--he's the Real Deal. Check him out and tell him I sent ya.

Keep On Keepin' On

National Biker Poetry Gathering?

Press Release...

2008 National Bikerpoetry Event.

Rock and Roll,

A lot will be happening in 2008; It promises to be an exciting year.

There is talk of having a 2008 National Bikerpoetry Event.

Several places have been presented as possible choices. Each one has
its own merit.

So far the choices are:

Uglicoyote has a offered a possible major Bikerpoetry booking at Elko,
Nevada. This is where the East Meets the West, and the Steel pony meets
the quarter pony, and the Bikerpoet and The Cowboy Poet share the same
range.

Colorado T. Sky has suggested the Indian Lookout Country Club Inc. in
upstate New York. This spot has been biker friendly, and has long Biker
event history.

J. Barrett Wolf, aka Bear, has offered the use of his home and land to
hold a Bikerpoetry Month or National Bikerpoet event on. Bear's land
holds camping and amenities, and is just far enough from Binghamton, New
York , to be a ride. Binghamton is a major poetry friendly town, and
booking a few reads down town should be possible.

One other place I would suggest is Poopy's in Savana, Illinois. It is a
Biker Friendly town, and there is a campground available.

This is too big an issue for one or two Bikerpoets to decide without
first consulting the Bikerpoetry Community at large...

Your feedback is needed on this ... a commitment would make this event
happen ... if this is not worked out by January first, it most likely
will not happen ... So, we need our fellow Bikerpoets to make this
happen.

My choice is wherever the Bikerpoety Community decides.

Hope you can take the run with us ... best miles and verses

Peddlar

Riding Through The Fire

Riding Through The Fire
This poem came out of recent ride I made up to Missoula and then on to Kalispell, MT. Of course, most of this can be attributed to the imagination of the poet, but at the time there really were some fires burning in western Montana, one quite serious just north of Missoula, the "Blackcat" fire, where I rode through flames right down to the edge of MT highway 93. I rode through extremely smoky conditions on a lot of that ride and this poem came to me in bits and pieces as I rode. I finally got around to releasing it onto the page. I hope you enjoy it. Keep on Keepin' on

Ridin’ through the fire
Ridin’ through the smoke of Hell
The forest around him burning
He keeps riding toward Kalispell

He met her in a saloon in Drummond
She lifted his soul and body higher
She was gone when he awakened
Left both his heart and the forest on fire

She told him she lived up by Kalispell
In a cabin near Flathead Lake
And although the smoke was getting bad
He new that run he had to make.

So he went ridin’ through the fire
Ridin' through the smoke of Hell
He rode straight on through Missoula
He was headed for Kalispell

Although fires burned right beside the road
He kept that Harley’s wheels on turning
Through Arlee, Polson, then on to Big Fork
His heart-fire just kept on burning

He had to see that Montana girl again
She had taken him so much higher
Than any woman had done before
She’d really set his soul on fire

So he went ridin’ through fire
He rode through the smoke of Hell
He just crossed the Jocko River
He had to make it to Kalispell.

She heard about it the next morning
He’d run a road block, the announcer said
On a closed highway he’d lost control
In the flames they found him dead.

She wondered why he had made that run
What caused him to take that ride?
Her husband didn’t see the tear that fell
With the name of the man who had died.

He’s still ridin’ through that fire
He’s still ridin’ through the smoke of Hell
Around him all is burning
And a woman weeps in Kalispell

Copyright 2007, Bill "uglicoyote" Davis