Monday, June 30, 1997
Teen spins rhyming yarn better than the rest
By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News
GORMAN - Spurs jingling, legs bowed, tall, lanky Tommy Seay
swings off his horse and readies himself for his next chore at
the cattle pens - reciting poetry.
He tilts his over-sized hat back on his head, the one with
the "reach and grab" crease, crooks his body just so,
and transforms himself from cowboy to cowboy poet. The transformation
is so good that Seay is the State 4-H Champion Cowboy Poet, a
poet laureate with a lariat.
He re-enacts his awarding winning recitation of the poem, "The
Bra," made famous in cowboy poetry circles by Waddy Mitchell,
a well known cowboy bard.
The 17-year-old never blushes as he spins the rhyming yarn
of the old cowboy who's sent by his wife to buy her a bra.
It's a funny tale, one that was interrupted numerous times
with giggles and applause at the state 4-H Roundup held at College
Station earlier this month.
It's a tale that stirred 4,000 people in the audience to rise
to their feet with a thunderous ovation at its conclusion.
It was the performance of a lifetime for the Eastland High
School junior who lives in Gorman.
"That has been his goal since going down to Roundup,"
said Tommy's mother, Vicki Seay.
4-H rules prohibit the state champion from competing again
in the same contest, so that's the end of the road for Tommy in
4-H competition. But it may be the beginning of something bigger.
Big name performers such as Mitchell bring in $5,000 per performance.
And, Tommy's parents, Vicki and Thomas, are eyeing the lucrative
scholarships made available through 4-H and FFA.
Already Tommy has won several thousand dollars at livestock
shows, both from the sale of animals and because of his performance
abilities.
Tommy seems born to be a cowboy poet.
"Yes ma'am, I reckon," is his concurring response.
Tommy has spent his life in a world that ended for most people
at the end of the last century.
"We put him on a horse when he was six weeks old,"
his mother said, which explains the bowed legs. "He should
have been born about a hundred years ago."
But Tommy is trying his best to make up for the poor timing.
His summer days are spent mostly atop Blue Duck, a handsome steed
that carries Tommy around the pens at the Ranger Auction Co. which
his parents co-own with another man.
Tommy's living his dream the best he can approaching the 21st
century.
"If the money permitted I'd like to cowboy all my life,"
he said. "But it's hard to do nowadays."
Tommy's turn toward poetry began in the fourth grade when he
entered a talent show at school and proved to be entertaining
to his classmates.
Later that year he went to a gathering of cowboy poets at the
Western Heritage Classic in Abilene and bought a Waddy Mitchell
tape. It was better than kissing a horse. Tommy was in love with
cowboy poetry.
"I just kind of hung with it," he said. "I feel
it's kind of a part of me."
Tommy has become so proficient that when his idol Mitchell
heard him at another Western Heritage Classic, he invited Tommy
to Chicago to do an opening act for him.
Since then Tommy has performed at the Lubbock Cowboy Symposium
and the State Fair. He has his aim on the "granddaddy of
them all," Mitchell's gathering at Elko, Nev.
Besides the thrill that comes with performing, Tommy appreciates
what cowboy poetry can teach him.
"There's so much history that goes with cowboy poetry,"
he said.
The poetry developed on the long cattle drives of the 1800s.
At night cowboys would sit around the campfire telling tales.
"To make the stories more interesting, they would put
them to rhyme," Tommy said. The listeners would "just
want to hear them over and over again."
Tommy's teachers like to hear it over and over again, too.
So much so, in fact, that the English teachers invite him to their
classes to help other students learn the beauty of poetry, even
though Tommy admits he "just tolerates" poetry not spoken
with drawl.
With about 30 poems in his repertoire, Tommy is in demand just
about anywhere cowboys and gathered. He hopes that one day that
gathering will be in Elko, Nev., alongside Waddy Mitchell. Whether
Tommy can make a living as a cowboy poet remains to be seen. He's
planning on college just in case.
But it doesn't hurt to dream.
"I'll just have to see where my poetry takes me,"
he said.
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story
to A Friend:
Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
