The West

Mallory posted this amazing picture a while back of Erik and his compadre with the quote “you got the kindest soul on the meanest earth.” It just stayed with me and gradually the words just started coming to me. It really sums up what I love about this cowboy life!!! I hope you like the words as much as I like the picture. PT

The West

Out beyond the highways
Lives a soul unlike the rest
Kind the Lord made special
They pursue a noble quest

Their spirit’s wild yet gentle
Much like the type they ride
He gives no points for status
What counts is deep inside

This quiet and reflective kind
Seldom takes the armor down
They go where others cannot
You won’t find them in a town

You’ll see that in one instant
Where the two connect again
And the pony finds a kindred
Out where fences cannot pen

In a world thats lost its compass
Where wrong gets spun to right
It’s not too hard to spot this kind
They hide there in plain sight

The stories bout this storied life
Always share one common start
Cause the West ain’t on an atlas
It’s a place found in your heart

PT Muldoon copyright 2023

Photo credit: @plain.janeeee

Part Of The Dance

Lost a classmate this week. Guy I grew up with since we were just little kids….he was a good guy….he battled alcoholism his whole life….he had his demons and in the end those demons took him from us far earlier than they should have…..I got a lot of friends who carry a coin in their pocket….they go to meetings and they wake up everyday and fight for that one day….the one right in front of them. I got friends who battle impossible illnesses and they too take it one day at a time!!! I’m proud of every single one them….carving out a life while battling a monster ain’t a small task….but it is a beautiful one!!! If you are in trouble don’t give up…catch a meeting….phone a friend….keep working at it….because you matter!!

I wrote this a couple weeks back hanging out on a beach….never thought that I’d be sharing it along with this post tonight…..but sometimes when the monsters close in on you, you gotta outrun em….I know what it’s like to battle the monsters myself….so I’ll say my prayers tonight for my friend and then wake up tomorrow and outrun those monsters another day!! PT

Part Of The Dance

With each trial I have been given
Loss was not the lesson learned
For it revealed what lay inside me
Ancient scars the fire had burned

Calm seas don’t make good sailors
It’s the storms that make you strong
For how you overcome defines you
Fight the good fight, sing your song

On those trials along this journey
True warriors do not fight alone
So pick careful who you ride with
A true friend will bring you home

Face the tough days, keep on smiling
And never let them steal your chance
When the storms rage all around you
Make all those falls part of the dance

PT Muldoon copyright 2023

Fast

My friend Chris Dickinson takes some incredible photos…..when I saw this one on his page it moved me to pick up my pen and give it some words!!! Here’s to all those amazing people who embrace life to its fullest…..and remind us all to truly live!!! PT

Fast

Siblings of true freedom
Who live this life they feel
To chase what is unspoken
On horseflesh or cold steel

The open road invites them
To touch what most can’t see
Across these endless prairies
Where good souls still go free

Then captured in one instant
Where this kind crosses way
A photograph to mark down
Kindred spirits wild at play

But if you blink you’ll miss it
Where progress touches past
And just like lives and freedom
They both slip away too fast

PT Muldoon Copyright 2023

Photo Credit Chris Dickinson Photography

Waves

God doesn’t take em from us….he just moves em. They were always His from the very start…..on loan to all of us for the time we had em to have their light shine and magically fill our lives with their own. Puncher’s don’t say goodbye….they say “until we meet again.” That’s not the same thing….there’s a very big difference! PT

Waves

Loss comes on in solid waves
Like the cadence of the tides
To wash away what used to be
As we make our storied rides

At first we drown beneath em
Until we learn to hold our air
We wait until waves take us out
Or they leave us safely here

The loss of what we treasured
Good friends pulled out to sea
Unsure if they have left for good
All these lives that ceased to be

In the pews on Sunday morning
God’s words give hope instead
That all those that left us early
Ride free on heaven’s spread

For though we cannot see em
They’re all with us by our side
Til those lost return to find us
And then together we all ride

PT Muldoon copyright 2023

The Wage. Puncher’s Paid

Wrote a new one tonight. I got a real
cool note today from someone I really look up to….his work….his art is at the level I aspire to reach someday!!! It’s amazing what a little encouragement can do for the soul. A big part of this life is working with what you’ve got to work with. Being a cowboy to me means that if you are dealt limitations you learn to make them work out in your favor. Someone I really look up to once told me that God knows the tools he lent you….up to you to honor those gifts and make the most of them…..you’re graded on a curve!!! Hope you like my words tonight. PT

The Wage A Puncher’s Paid

That circle was a large one
His stick that day was slow
The others moved in quickly
His horse more stop than go

So he watched the cattle closer
Then he chose a tighter course
He’d learned while still a button
That you can’t unpick your horse

A cowboy works around stuff
He makes do with what he’s got
And sometimes it’s a challenge
If what they give you ain’t a lot

I’ve met some men with talent
And some with starch and try
A few with the age and wisdom
To make an equine anchor fly

The best ones find the way to
Make those lemons lemonade
That’s how a man brings value
Earns a wage a puncher’s paid

PT Muldoon copyright 2023

Respect

Wrote a new one tonight…the picture is Hollyn Patterson a friend who I met on here through Kirstie Lambert. Been on the road a good while here on the South Carolina coast. This salt air is kind of amazing and its given me some real quality time to just reflect and write. This picture really spoke to me. Hollyn and her husband truly exemplify this cowboy life and all the incredible values that it instills. I really hope you like the words. PT

Photo Credit Kirstie Lambert

Respect

Another spa day on the outfit
Where the scent is leather oil
Getting tan under the big sky
Today’s scrub is “simply soil”

Your hands get kinda calloused
Out moving cows under big sky
Tough workouts on wild country
Guiding tough horses as they fly

Behind her eyes there is a wisdom
Earned riding miles out here alone
Where a workday starts real early
Ending once new stars have shone

You won’t get rich on these outfits
Here hard work’s what you expect
But stick around and pay attention
You’ll earn your millions in respect

PT Muldoon copyright 2023

Shipping Day

My new book River’s Of Ink is finally out on Amazon. This is that time where it takes me a while to shift gears from editing and start my writing. It usually takes that first one to get me going again!!! Thank goodness for amazing pictures to give me a cool subject…..wrote a new one today to go with an incredible picture by my friend Kirstie Lambert. Kinda motivated me to scribble some words of my own to go with it. If you haven’t checked out Kirstie’s work please do….she does an incredible job with her camera capturing this amazing life we are blessed to lead!!! Hope you like the words. PT

Shipping Day

A little place out on the prairie
Timbers rising from dry grass
Simple stairway leading up to
Where the finished cattle pass

Years have scarred the lumber
Mapping out those exit ways
As they loaded for the journey
On those crispy autumn days

This way of life is ever changing
Someday much of it may end
Just be photos in a scrapbook
From a time beyond the bend

Something pure about the effort
There’s still real honor in the way
That a puncher loads em steady
When it comes the shipping day

PT Muldoon copyright 2022

Photo credit Kirstie Lambert

The Good Trail

Figured I’d pen a new one this morning. Just a quiet winter Sunday morning here in the Mitten….the air here has a little cold bite to it…..upper thirties. As I sit and reflect I realize that in my circle are some of the most incredible souls I have ever known…..some of them God gave two legs….some were given four!! When you spend time around those who ride the tougher trails you quickly get a sense that they know when someone in their circle is struggling….they sense when you are in trouble and quickly spring to action….the notes that fly back in forth are like the light from a distant lighthouse giving hope to the ships out on rough seas. What an amazing journey this can be if we just pay attention to the journeys that others face…what a noble endeavor it is to help fix it up so they do not face them alone. I hear a lot these days about how screwed up this world is….that’s not true….you may have to look a little harder to find them but trust me the warriors are all around you….you just can’t see em from the road….but they are out there….I have met them and count them in my own circle. Have a great day everyone! Thank you for the kinship….it really does matter! PT

The Good Trail

When your life is going sideways
When all you see’s an empty cup
How you fall ain’t what defines you
Just dust yourself then get back up

Any fool can sail the calm seas
Where the path is light and good
It takes more to ride a storm out
Ride the path you know you should

When you feel dark waters rising
And your ship is tossed and torn
Put your trust in what still matters
Don’t get lost out in that storm

For only God can fix those broken
Bring the lost back to what’s good
When the right path grows elusive
Ride the one you know you should

When the darkness is surrounding
It’s your circle brings you through
Find the calm inside rough waters
And ride the trail you promised to

PT Muldoon copyright 2022

Grass Surfer

Tonight’s new one….I’m doing a little writing as I enjoy some time off….just kinda watching the waves tonight as the sun sets on another treasured day!!!PT

Grass Surfer

Surfista de la tierra
The surfer of the lands
Out riding on wild prairies
His bold horse within his hands

The grass moves out like water
As it beckons men to ride
Out into mystic places
Few ever feel inside

I believe that the vaqueros
Just like surfers on rough seas
Pulled hard by winds and freedom
That well deep between their knees

For It’s not great fame or fortunes
Drives em further from the shore
Where the talent buys the ticket
For a ride worth so much more

PT Muldoon copyright 2023

The Brand

Got a good fire going tonight and just relaxing a bit after a real blessed day. I decided to pen a new one tonight…..Sherry Thorne thank you for bringing it to life…..Bobbie Muldoon thanks for an awesome and very thoughtful Christmas gift. Been on this place the better part of my whole life….Billy Van Portfliet helped me build my very first set of irons and I’m pretty proud of all the amazing journeys and stories that this brand has come to represent…..we raised cows and kids and horses….and we built lives and friendships as a lot of awesome kids learned to rope, ride and work cattle and love this life. We carved a pretty cool life living out here between the ground and God. I hope you like the words. PT

The Brand

When you’ve done a little living
And all the miles begin to show
The time gets carved on leather
Journey’s those who matter know

Gear begins to show some age
And your horses ain’t so young
Still cowboy strong and spirited
Same as when that ride begun

If you’re lucky there’s a legacy
You’ll leave when you play thru
More about the way it mattered
Then all the little wins you knew

And somewhere on your journey
Once you’ve earned a little sand
You’ll leave this mark behind you
Little mark you’ll call your brand

It’s a way to help show clearly
What belongs upon the place
In a way that can’t be altered
So errant hands cannot erase

Somewhere between useful
And the art a cowboy knows
Brand takes on its own life
An ideal thru time that grows

On my horses left front shoulder
And on our cattle’s left rear hip
Burned hot on barns and fences
Like maiden’s name upon a ship

My wife gave me a treasure
Of cold steel and silver born
So I could put it on my saddle
Fancy jewel there on my horn

By an artist that I call my friend
The brand that marks my place
On that wade I rode my lifetime
And my dream time can’t erase

   PT Muldoon copyright 2022