Hello.
I'm a published "poet" in the sense that I have one poem in the neo-formalist journal "The Dark Horse" and another in the neo-conservative journal "(The Rockford) Chronicles" (even though that journal's politics are NOT my own.)
But down deep, I believe that the English poetic tradition really lives on in US C&W lyrics, not in the poems of English writers who think of themselves as "poets". In effect, if Pound and Eliot were correct to locate one beginning of the English poetic tradition in songs of troubadors, then I think that US C&W has started a new cycle of the English poetic tradition and that eventually, C&W lyrics of the last century will be considered one "beginning" of the "English poetic tradition" of the 25th century.
In this regard, please note that I DON't mean US C&W lyrics of the type you hear on Nashville NPR or at Nashville NSAI meetings from very serious young singer/songwriters - I mean the "hard-core" country lyrics of the standards (we all know the ones I mean), only including "softer-core" lyrics if they're no softer than maybe Townes' "Pancho and Lefty".
To give you just one example of where I see poetry in "hard-core" C&W lyrics, consider the off-rhyme of "nursery" and "mercy" at the end of George Jones' classic "The Grand Tour". That rhyme may well be up there among the top ten rhymes in the English language - a truly freakin' inspired rhyme, given the way it helps deliver the "money-shot" of the song with just two words.
So, anyway, I'll be posting some of my own C&W stuff here. I'm not curious to know if you think any are good poetry - I already know that some of them are.
What I'd like to know is whether you think that any of them are good lyrics, not just lyrics that meet the acid test of being "radio-friendly" ...