I was in my glory as host of AgriTalk, taking calls and harassing a mild-mannered psychologist about his claim that finding happiness is more up to us than the world around us, when a man from Tonkawa, Okla., called in with a poem he?d written and would like to read. The call screener and producer huddled, and almost told him no, because readings could kill the show?s momentum. He was so nice that the producer asked him to read the short poem off-air and was so impressed that he encouraged me to put the man on, to close the program.
In his deep drawling voice, Joe Kreger recited words from ?Small Pleasures? and made sense of life. He pointed out all the little things that we find satisfying in rural America but take for granted:
The sight of a mare nursin? a foal
Little boys playin? in a big mud hole
When your kid?s calf wins at the county fair
Your three year old daughter primpin? her hair
You can go on forever and you won?t run out
Of countin? the little things life?s all about
For when you add up all of life?s small pleasures
You don?t have to be rich to have great treasures
It was a winner! The listeners had it all put in perspective in a few stanzas; the good doctor and I were outclassed by the thoughts and words of a man we found was a cattle rancher on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River.
The public interest was so great that we got Joe?s permission to re-print and my wife, the AgriTalk call screener, sent out more than 300 copies of that poem. About a month later, producer Rustin Hamilton called Joe and said: ?Got any more?? We were surprised to find that he had a bunch of poems he said were written with a short pencil on scraps of paper in odd moments. We began to realize that he was unique and his work was far better than we ever imagined.
Joe Kreger became a friend in the mid 1990s and he remains so today. He?s still out there as a 66-year-old rancher trying to make a living selling Beefmaster cattle and wrestling with the challenges of life. He?s looking forward to a big production sale next year and has more purebred cattle on the place than ever.
Joe?s poetry explains the world in terms of cows, cowboys, horses, dogs and nature. He can take the most perplexing problem or human condition and break it down to make it fit into one of these components. He weaves family and friends into his work and he shows that one can persevere, even when life deals a card that is so cold and sharp that it slices the soul.
Joe Kreger shouldn?t be happy at all, with what?s befallen him. Joe and his wife had three children. The oldest two were Sara and Dessa, with son, Joe Bayne, coming along later. A poem about ?The girls on loan from God? fulfills our worst fears. Sara and Dessa, along with a neighbor girl, were all killed in an automobile accident while driving to Stillwater for Sara to register for college. Some time later, Joe took out his stubby pencil to try to make sense of the situation and in a poem called ?Sara’s Babies,? he found acceptance of the Lord?s will in a way that only a determined but heartbroken cowboy can do.
His son now has multiple sclerosis and Joe is fighting prostate cancer. But it looks like he may win, or at least work it to a stalemate through radiation therapy. Over the years, he?s been flooded out and, in a recent poem called ?Fightin? the River,? he seemed to be at peace when he wrote ?the river won.? In recent years, Joe has known the physical changes caused by age. He has humorously reflected on why he can?t get his overshoes buttoned and that there must be a gremlin that hates him because it keeps stealin? his tools and tack. He always looks for the simple parallels with nature or finds a way to accept things that doctors with 10 letters behind their names can?t sort out.
You never want to assume Joe Kreger is ?simple,? even though his conclusions seem to be such. He is the son of a country doctor. He has a brother who is a doctor and, in a turn of fate that seems hard to believe, he spent a period of time as the Poet Laureate of Oklahoma. That may be a laugh line for the unfortunate ?non-Okies? of this world, but a set of circumstances, that included Joe?s talent, an influential veterinarian and a conservative governor, gave Joe the title for a brief period of time. He took the office seriously but funned himself, by writing a piece called ?Old Bovine? in old English prose.
Joe isn?t your flashy entertainer. He?s the same guy in his truck or on his horse as he is on stage. He carries his notes and would rather sit than stand as he presents his work. He has two speeds?slow and stopped?and, when he?s done with each poem, he utters the words ?thank you? and steps away from the spotlight on the stage. He can make you laugh, or think, or cry, just by the strength of the prose he presents.
Joe Kreger could change his name to Job and it would fit the struggles of his life. His faith in God is the way he has been able to get from day to day. He does not hesitate to write and recite Christian inspirational poems that will make anyone shed a tear. Yet, through it all, he looks for joy in the simple things of life.
It?s just what you do with whatever you got
That make all the difference if you?re happy or not.
