Doc Hayes

Making hay while the sun shines

“Doc” Hayes has spoken at over 400 educational and organizational training and motivational meetings since the mid ’70s. He has been featured at many of the major western gatherings in both Canada and the United States. “Doc” is the producer and host of the Brandon Cowboy Poetry Gathering and the Canadian Cowboy Christmas. He has been featured on both regional and national television shows on Cowboy Poetry. He is a member of the Academy of American Poets and the Academy of Western Artists.

Doc’s been busy writing and speaking over the past few months. Recently he spoke at the 24th Annual Pincher Creek, AB – Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Browse through the site and check out Doc’s Poems. Come back often to see where Doc is heading next.

Oct. 26 through Oct. 30. 1, 2012 ~ Sons of the Pioneers in Manitoba!

Brian Bergquist and I are producing a set of six special feature gatherings in Manitoba. Beginning Oct. 26 in Brandon (3 shows: Fri. evening, Sat. matinee and Sat. evening) featuring the Sons of the Pioneers, Sourdough Slim, Eli Barsi (MC), and other well known top Canadian cowboy poets and musicians, at the Westman Centenial Auditorium.

One show (Oct. 28) in the P. W. Enns Centenial Theatre in Winkler featuring the Sons of the Pioneers. I will be hosting and backed up by some of Canada’s top cowboy poets and western musicians. One of Manitoba’s favorite western entertainers, Stew Clayton-international champion yodeler- will be on program, as well. Ticket information is available on their site. Information to follow.

Two shows in Winnipeg (Oct. 29 and 30) at the Plantages Centennial Theatre. Tickets available by contacting Ticket Masters, through their website, or by phoning the Winnipeg Ticket Masters Office. Sons of the Pioneers will be backed up by some of Canada’s top cowboy poets and western musicians’ including Ray St. Germain, (2010 Inductee, Country Music Hall of Fame),

For additional information, you can call Brian at 204 726 9593 or myself at 204 725 0758 or on cell at 204 730 0758.

Look out for info on two major gathers and concerts in summer, 2013 and October 2013. One of those is a major feature for the 100th year celebration of an international organization. Chris Isaacs and Kent Rollins as featured poets and one of the best known North American western music groups.

Regards, Doc Hayes, Western Folklorist/Cowboy Poet,,,dochayes.org

Blowing Snow

In winter, 1969, two friends and I were hunting grizzlies on the south shore of the Lesser Slave Lake in Northern Alberta. We rode down off of a ridge and through what remained of an abandoned ranch. The  barn was tumbled in, the fences down and the old log style house stood  open to those winds that never cease. One of my hunting partners had  ranched near there for a number of years. He told us the story of the  family that had homesteaded there many years before. This is their story.

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Short Cut

Short Cut is a bucking horse,
and about as mean as anything you’ve ever seen.
He always starts and he stays the course
totally rank and every second in the saddle obscene.
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The Woman’s Side of the Story

The challenges and circumstances confronting the women who went with their cowboy husbands into the west before the turn of the 20th century demanded a quality of human being worthy of respect then and now. This poem is based on words from an old timer at the Rawlings, Wyoming Gathering.

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The Modern Day Value of the Tom Mix Ranch

Down at the Prescott Gathering, summer of ’98
I met a right decent feller with an interesting tale to tell
Of the practical jokes played by Old Lady Fate.
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Like Water and the Duck’s Back

“This past year, we pastured a young bull we nicknamed ‘Dumb-Cluck’.
Thinking back on it, I think he thought he was grandson to a mallard duck,
‘Cause he was always doing things that a bull doesn’t usually do.
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Accuracy in the Medium

“He said he was a cowboy poet and I guess he looked the part.
He walked the walk and he talked the talk,
‘Cause when he recited it came from down deep in the heart.
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In Spite of All!

My old buddy and I have been pards for over 50 years.
Back then, we rode out as young waddies together.
Wintered in the mountains, brush busted for renegade steers,
And hunkered down long term in line shacks in rugged weather.
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Your First Ride on a One Man Merry Go ‘Round – or – (The Sloan’s Liniment Archives)

From Folks’ Poems – Doc told us: “Back when I was a young feller in Flagstaff, Arizona in the mid ’40s, my Dad used to do business with the Kellum Ranch near there. I used to ride along with him, and that is where I got my first interests in cowboy stories and poetry. Many years later, when I was first getting into cowboy poetry, I was introduced to Sunny Hancock, by way of Chris Isaacs. In talking with Sunny I found he had started out with the Kellums and as Sunny and Chris have been two of my main inspirations, I occasionally run a poem for one or the other of those two fine poets and great examples of what this trade is all about. This poem is a reflection on some of my own experiences many, read that many/many, years ago, before I settled in and became a university professor. But it really reflects on the generation just before me and is written as a tribute to those cowboys I used to dream of becoming when I was a young feller.

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Summer Pasture

Old catamount lies up a top a granite rock and casts a hungry eye on that summer stock
Out there in the summer pasture.

Mares with foals and the herd boss’ crew gives him pause as he knows what they can do
Out there in that summer pasture.

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