Poetry in the Blackfoot

"I love the light here, and the silence. It's one thing I find ... the quiet is so great," Eldon Beck said .

In that great quiet Beck, 87, found a new voice in the form of poetry 16 years ago, during a winter visit to his daughter's home near Helmville.

Beck joked that when he began writing poetry at 71, he was called one of the new "young" authors.

The view from the window in his daughter Jean Pocha's house inspired a poem called 'The Wind Blows White,' which became the title of a book of poetry he published in 2014

Beck said the wildness of Montana's natural landscape and the seasonal variation has served as the primary inspiration for his poetry, speaking to his background as a landscape architect.

Although Beck has lived in the Bay Area of California with his wife Helen for the last 56 years, he's no stranger to mountains landscapes, having made a name for himself designing for ski resort villages in Europe and North America, most notably as the mastermind behind Whistler Village at Whistler mountain in British Columbia.

Nevertheless, Montana has served as his primary poetic muse.

Beck had the opportunity to share some of his work last Thursday at a poetry reading in Ovando at the Brand Bar Museum.

"Most of my writing has been about Montana. Over the years, I branched out into other parts of the country," he said. "What I'm going to read today are primarily Montana poems. When I come here it's inspirational."

Although "cowboy" poetry is an established tradition in Montana, poetry readings aren't a common event in the ranching communities of the Blackfoot Valley, so Pocha took a pragmatic approach finding one where her father could share his work. "The only way to go to one is put one on, I guess," she said.

Pocha said putting the reading together in just three weeks was a way to honor her father, and to promote the arts.

"It's something we've always kind of tossed around," she said. "He likes to promote art, whether written word, or drawing or speaking."

Beck was joined at the poetry reading by Jack Rich of the Rich Ranch, who started the program with a poem by his father, CB Rich. Called 'Memory Lane to Dad,' CB Rich had written to his own father in 1964.

Rich, a loquacious, larger-than-life figure himself, explained that his father was a hopeless romantic who wrote poetry to the cadence of hoofed beats, and jotted down poetic phrases as they came to him while riding down the trail on summer pack trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Beck recited nine of his poems over the course of about 20 minutes. They included "The Wind Blows White and other poems about Montana, as well as a couple inspired by both his youth in Missouri and the landscape of the Sierras near Hat Creek. Beck spoke about writing poetry as a gateway to "a thought you didn't have," as one word leads to another.

Beck also amused members of the audience by providing a lesson in the correct way to show appreciation for poetry at a proper reading. Applause, it seems, is considered improper. He explained that, instead, they should show their approval by saying 'hmmm' or by snapping their fingers.

Louie Vero of the E Bar L Ranch near Greenough - and a February inductee into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame - also took part in the event. Closing the reading, he capitalized on the museum's history as a saloon for an animated recitation of Hugh Antoine d'Arcy's 1887 classic ballad "The Face on the Barroom Floor."

Although the poetry reading drew a crowd of only about 15 people, Pocha said there was quite a bit of interest in the event, and she hopes to see it continue and grow.

"I hope it's kind of an outreach because so many people wanted to come but couldn't, because of the day, so there is interest," she said. "It's nice to get together and share what people know how to do. It's a little different thing. I thought people who are artists can come and talk about a painting they did, or (writers can) share a story idea."