HIGH POLE GATE - Song Page
© words & music by Annie Wilson
from CD Sky & Water, Wind & Grass
Album note: The high pole gate plays a critical role in moving cattle, fence design, and just keeping your bearings way out in the hills. Its classic framing image seems to say: you’re in the West now.
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LYRICS:
As the riders head on out at dawn
to gather up the steers
One voice among the others
speaks up so they can hear:
“We’ll gather up the corners
bunch em on the ridge and wait
Then we’ll take em cross the high ground
out thru that high pole gate”
We start to get the bunches gathered,
soon we’ve got a herd
We’re moving cross the ridgetop slowly –
not to make a stir
We ease ‘em towards the high poles
and we hope they’ll slip on through
Then the lead steer passes through it
and the others follow too
Yes, the high pole gate’s a landmark
in the endless western sky
It’s a symbol of the rangeland
on the treeless hills up high
When you’re ridin’ in the pastures
& you think you’ve lost yer way
You’ll see that handsome silhouette
and find your high pole gate
Sometimes it’s just a signpost
for a fancy ranch’s name
But the engineering cowboy knows
the reason for high gates:
The gate’s top wire connects the fence
where the gate is opened wide
So he-won’t have to work so hard
and brace up both the sides
CHORUS
The meadowlarks and kingbirds
love to perch atop its wire
And the high pole gate can frame that sunset
full of orange fire
So if I get to cowboy heaven
and I stand in line and wait
I just bet I’ll see St. Peter
underneath a high pole gate