Congratulations to the 100th National Western Stock Show, Denver, January 7 - 22!

Lookout Mountain. I-70 & Golden.

Vintage Colorado Poetry Poems of the Week January 9, 2006

William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, died in Denver on January 10, 1917.  Despite Wyoming's insistence that Buffalo Bill should be buried in Wyoming, he wasn't. He was buried on Lookout Mountain.     For the great city populations east of the Mississippi, Buffalo Bill's travelling Wild West Show had been the West.  On his death, he was much remembered and written about, including these poems with differing takes by E. E. Cummings (e. e. cummings) and Carl Sandburg.

Buffalo Bill's Defunct by E. E. Cummings Buffalo Bill's defunct            who used to            ride a watersmooth-silver                                                   stallion and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat                                                                               Jesus he was a handsome man                                      and what i want to know is how do you like your blueeyed boy Mister Death. Reprinted from "Seven Poems" by E. E. Cummings. The Dial. January 1920.

*** Buffalo Bill by Carl Sandburg Boy heart of Johnny Jones---aching to-day? Aching, and Buffalo Bill in town? Buffalo Bill and ponies, cowboys, and Indians? Some of us know All about it, Johnny Jones. Buffalo Bill is a slanting look of the eyes,    A slanting look under a hat on a horse. He sits on a horse and a passing look is fixed    On Johnny Jones, you and me, barelegged, A slanting, passing, careless look under a hat on a horse. Go clickety-clack, O pony hoofs along the street. Come on and slant your eyes again, O Buffalo Bill. Give us again the ache of our boy hearts. Fill us again with the red love of prairies, dark nights,          lonely wagons, and the crack-crack of rifles sputter-          ing flashes into an ambush. Reprinted from Cornhuskers by Carl Sandburg. New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1918.

Home / Archives / Previous Poem of the Week