South Dakota Classic Poems

In 1937, Badger Clark was judged the best poet in South Dakota and was named Poet Laureate of the state even though he spent most of his time in Arizona recuperating from tuberculosis. An article in the "Smithsonian Magazine," by Carson Vaughn, dated October 2020, is a sympathetic, if less than flattering review of the work of Badger Clark, but many of his poems were popular with western afficionados and singers.There I was sitting in Mrs. Lang's sixth grade class in Bonesteel in 1954, perusing a book of poetry that had the picture of Badger Clark, a cowboy poet balladeer who had written at least one of the poems in the text. I remember having to memorize a poem and recite it for the class, so I chose the "Village Blacksmith" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The image though of Badger Clark as a poet originally from South Dakota stuck in my mind all these years. Like him, I have been gone from South Dakota for decades, yet I still feel the affinity with the farms and prairie, Badlands and Black Hills that were important in my youth. I was, after all, born in Winner and spent my grade school years on a farm eight miles outside of Bonesteel. I trust you will count me a native.In "South Dakota Classic Poems: From Prairie Country Homes," I have placed one hundred (100) of my poems with South Dakota memories and relevancy using classical rhyme and rhythm. The range of subjects includes poems for kids, poems for the historian, and poems of nostalgia from living on a farm during the 1940's and 1950's. I suppose that makes them a bit of history also. This is a collection of South Dakota poems. About 30% come from my previous poetry book, "American Country Poetry." The rest I found scattered over my more than 50 self-published books of poetry. I have written another book about my pioneering grandfather and school teacher on my mother's side, Roy Backus, whose family homesteaded in Geddes and who later homesteaded near Smithwick. On my father's side, his parents homesteaded near Bonesteel and his mother was from the Johnson/Qualm family line that settled land near Platte.I have great hopes that many from South Dakota will enjoy this volume of "their" poetry celebrating their past.