Rancher feted as cowboy poet
Staff writer
Rural Lincolnville resident Peyton Harms has earned a national reputation as a cowboy poet.
Harms is featured in this month’s edition of John Deere Equipment’s magazine, “The Furrow.”
He posts his poetry on social media platforms.
What’s surprising about the poems Harms writes as he works on his family’s Harms Plainview Ranch is that he took no interest in poetry as a student, he said.
He told “The Furrow” that no one is more surprised by his affinity for writing poetry than he was.
Raising cattle in the Flint Hills has been in Harms’ blood. The ranch was founded by his ancestors in 1885 and is in its fifth generation of continuous operation.
It offers black and red Angus as well as Charolais stock.
Harms graduated from Centre High School and has worked at the farm full time since 2000.
He told “The Furrow” that his inspiration was to bring to light both the hardships and the romantic side of working the farm. His poems often blend faith into the tapestry of the writing:
Bury me beneath the bluestem
While a lonesome fiddle plays
Speak not much on living or dying
Or my old cowboy ways.
Just let the prairie symphony play.
Let the stillness soothe the sadness.
May comfort be found in the peace
Amidst the tears a moment of gladness.
Lord, I do not ask for much.
But in my final hour,
Lead me out to the hills
Reclaim my soul with Your holy power.
In the distance I will hear
A lonesome fiddle play.
And on the cool prairie breeze
The bluestem will gently sway.