What A Great Character And Interview!

Today I'm turning my interview spotlight on avant-garde drugstore cowboy poet Duke LaRance the man with the bolero tie and unique writing style. Thank you so much for this interview, Duke. I really look forward to knowing you better and I'm sure your readers will enjoy reading about you, your craft and your life.


“How Do”, as the Old Man used to say before he “went dead” as he also used to say before he went dead. Thanks much! I want you and your many readers to know that I am deeply touched and profoundly honored by your interest in me and my writing. I could be described as an uneducated backwoods country poet. I have many cultured and sophisticated friends on Facebook who read my missives regularly and they will all be introduced to your outstanding work.


According to Webster a drugstore cowboy is defined as one of two things:

1 : one who wears cowboy clothes but has had no experience as a cowboy
2 : one who loafs on street corners and in drugstores

Then there's the '80's movie "Drugstore Cowboy," described as a saga about a pharmacy-robbing dope fiend and his crew who pop pills and evade the law. Which one of these descriptions fits you and why did you choose to call yourself a drugstore cowboy poet?


Har-har! First of all I have always wanted to be avant-garde something or other, even before I knew what it meant and now you and my evil twin Ed Matlack have validated that! Well, I reckon that the words “Dope Fiend” are subjective and open to a lot of different interpretations, so I’d best stay away from that one. To me the term Drugstore Cowboy conjures up Jon Voight in “Midnight Cowboy”, a dandy or a fop, if you will. As they say, “all hat and no cattle” (and replete with them pointy-toed boots). Much of my work might be construe d as “Cowboy Poetry” which generally is rhyming and tells earthy tales of ranch and small town life or bemused reflections on modern times. I try to affect a unique style of dress (as well as shirts and trousers). For me to embrace the name “Drugstore Cowboy Poet is indicative of my deeply inbred, I mean ingrained sense of irony and sarcasm.



I believe your pen name is Duke LaRance, what influenced you to take such an interesting name to write under?


Nom de plume, nom de guerre -- Don’t tell anybody, but that is the name I go by; Duke being my nickname. I do not disclose my given first name for fear of being mocked and ridiculed. My mother was a cruel, mean-spirited woman who still torments me from beyond the grave. LaRance obviously is French, but has been spelled many different ways; Lorence, Larance…I’m told that I am related to everybody in this country with last names Lawrence and Laurence, whether they want to admit it or not! Countless moons ago when I signed in at Glacier View Golf Club the young lady at the counter blurted out something to the effect that I had a name like a movie star. That was a long time ago when I was even prettier than I am now.



Your bio describes you as a hard-nosed, hard-ball, know it all. Tell us about the things you don't know, the things that confuse or mystify you.


I don’t understand how people can be so rude, so inconsiderate, so heartless. Why must people be so uncaring, rigid, myopic, thoughtless and coarse? I just don’t get it. I can be a bit coarse myself when in the presence of likeminded folks, then we just feed off each other. I will never understand cruelty, violence or the mindless violence that is vandalism against Nature. While I can participate in the rituals and liturgies of mainline protestant churches out of respect; I can’t wrap my head around the concept of the Holy Trinity. I believe that Jesus Christ was an important historical figure and Son of God or not, if all self-described Christians acted like Him, the world would be a much better place. Most of all, I want to know how Sam Peckinpah, Rob Zombie and Quentin Tarantino can/could get away with writing the type of horrific bilge that would land me in the ‘Springs.



When did you first discover your poetic gift and what kind of poetry did you write in your early days?


I have always enjoyed writing in one form or another. Whether I am or not, I consider myself to be a wordsmith. I generally wrote “poison pen” letters to the editor. The Great Falls Buff…Tribune gave me its Silver Pen Award for a “succinct” letter blasting the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It wasn’t until 1995 that I really started writing poetry, which was when I got dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age. Among my earliest pieces are what I call “Hard Gospel” in which I flagellate the Self-Righteous so they can take a break from doing it for themselves. A person’s arms can get mighty tired from beating oneself up. When I look back at the earlier writing, I am still very pleased with some of it, but much is mindless drivel. I have been gifted with a natural wacked out knack for rhyme, rhythm and alliteration and at first had a tough time writing free verse. Most all of my early works were lyrics for which I developed chord progressions.



You describe yourself as being blessed with the wicked soul of a poet, I just love that description. Tell us what lives in that soul, what makes it so unique and what makes it a poet's soul? What is so wicked about it?


You are quoting from a piece I just posted yesterday (March 31); thank you. I love sarcasm, contradiction, opposites and irony. It’s like we are all living in “This World” (Fantasy) and the “Bizzaro World” (Reality) at the same time. It’s like we’re flitting about like super-sized Tinkerbells in and out of Random Parallel Universes sucked into one Black Hole and spat out of another in an endless cycle; through a maze of Wormholes. Wicked in the sense that a poet wears his/her heart on his/her sleeve. The poet puts it out there, the good, the bad and the ugly, to purloin a phrase and forces the readers to face their own fears and demons square on.




You were born in Mt. did you ever have the profession of a real cowboy?


I grew up around horses and cattle. Dad had a roping horse the same age as me so we grew up together. That corpulent buckskin could sprint 400 yards so fast that it made my eyes water. The summers after 8th, 9th and 10th grade I had jobs on area ranches, primarily stacking hay bales that could range anywhere from 80 to 120 pounds (think Pine Butte Swamp). The summer after 10th grade I worked for Tom and Mary Bessette on the “Hughes Place” west of Choteau. I stacked hay, fixed fence and twice helped drive cattle on horseback 12 miles plus in mountainous terrain. One of these was an overnight trip sleeping under the stars in the Blackfeet Nation. It was on the latter trip that I either stole or coined the term “physical shits” I don’t remember now…where am I….?



What environmental influence do you think did most to shape you as a man and a writer?


Definitely my family background and its backdrop, especially on Dad’s side. I am Metis, which is a polite modern day French word for half-breed. I wish I really was a half-breed. I am 21/128ths Chippewa and 7/128ths Cree, at least by the federal government’s half-assed calculations. I suppose that makes me a 28/128ths breed. Dad’s paternal side had been living in the South Fork of the Teton Canyon since the 1870’s. His maternal side literally fled across the Medicine Line after the (Second) Riel Rebellion in Canada in the late 1880’s with Mounties and Orangemen in hot pursuit. I am a member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana. We are recognized as a tribe by the State of Montana but have been in a losing battle for Federal Recognition for over 120 years. I have lived hard against the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana for my entire life. It is a harsh, beautiful, rugged, generous and unforgiving landscape of undulating foothills and prairies formed by glaciers and volcanoes until the Front, created by the Overthrust Belt seemingly rises straight up out of the Earth. “Crown of the Continent” my ass. The Blackfeet refer to the Continental Divide as the “Backbone of the World” and there is no doubt in my mind about it



Some of your poetry is humorous in a backhanded and sometimes in your face sort of way and many times it makes a philosophical and social statement. Why do you think you have such a keen wit and social conscience, are they naturally part of you or were they birthed by circumstances?


Thank you for the kind comments. I have a love of sarcasm, irony and parody. I can be more than happy to be a self-deprecating clown when among friends and make everyone, myself included, roar with laughter. I just wish I had the guts to post some of the really good stuff, like “Sex With Dr. Ruth”. My parents and their good friends were active in local Democratic Party politics when I was growing up. I am an unabashed,flaming, bleeding heart, pinkeau liberal and always will be.



Is there a particular experience you had that impacted you and has influenced your writing?


One of the surest ways to become a member of the 3rd Floor Alumni Society is to state that you are a Native American on a Vision Quest. For many years I have been spellbound and in awe of Old Red Man Butte, or “Priest Butte” as Charlie calls it. I will stand firmly behind “Dreams and Visions” which is considered too out there by some of my relatives, and then there’s something even wilder titled, “Garryowen is Struck Up by the Band” There is so much to this story that I could spend the rest of my life writing about it. Maybe I should. I refer anyone interested to check out “Bear Grease Speaks”, an article that I posted in the poetry section at AD. Every word of it is true .
The butte is an ancient vision quest sight located on State Land. Access should be only on foot with a State Lands Permit. Hundreds or thousands of idiots, myself included on many occasions have driven up the west side of the butte. It is disgusting the vandalism I have seen, dates chiseled into sandstone going back to the 1930’s and garbage, some left there by a movie company that was making a sophomoric film about an “Indin” sheriff who looked like an aborigine…wait a minute…kindduh like me. I wish everybody would just stay the Hell off of there….



Duke, do you think there is any chance to alter history or do you really think the end is near and wish it would just get here? If positive changes could be made what should they be and how can we facilitate them?


There might be a slight chance of turning things around. The biggest problems are greed and climate change, and it might be too late. There is too much money to be made in dirty energy. I see where the Koch Bros. are doing their damnedest to put the kibosh on solar energy in Florida. It’s like “that bunch”, in Injun vernacular thinks they are going to be immune when it all goes to Hell. Crazy, init? Deep down, I know that society has become over-reliant on technology. When the power grid goes down, and it will, it won’t come back up. Society will immediately plunge into chaos and the shootin’ will start. A lot of old scores will be settled. I am not a survivalist and I am in no way prepared for this. “Que sera, sera….” as the sage once sang. Besides, I’m sure that my Mormon neighbor is a lot more heavily armed than me….



What person in your life had the greatest influence on you and why?


In a lot of ways I am like Dad. He was a generous hard-working person who battled his own demons along the way, just like we all must. He experienced some terrible things in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge and my brother maintains that he spent the rest of his life living in 1944. Mom was an amazingly talented artist in so many ways. She was a painter who especially loved to work with a pallet knife. She was an expert floral designer who could crank out one perfect corsage and boutineer after another at prom time. She knew how to make the poinsettias bloom the week before Christmas and the lilies the week before Easter. Sadly she did not get the recognition that I feel she deserved. She was an English war bride from a working class family from Bath who, to a certain extent was regarded as a curiousity on the High Plains. Yet, imagine her surprise upon arriving in Paradise only to find that some people were still using outhouses and hand pumps in town.



What element of nature seems to inspire you most?


There is so much, yet I think I can boil it all down to sunrise and how it illuminates everything that holds me in awe all around me. It’s the effect of changing colors on everything. A person must soak up the Solitude, listen to the Colors and see the Wind. Even the drabbest day has a sunrise and we all need to remember that.



If you could change any one thing about yourself what would it be and what do you feel is your most valuable trait?


I have danced through life as a classic underachiever. In my dotage, I need to wise up and get more serious about whatever my future holds lest I spend my Golden Years in the Poor House. I would say most valuable, to me at least is compassion, sometimes to the point where it hurts.



You have a wonderful collection of poetry and a couple of fascinating short stories posted on AD, do you plan to publish them in book form?


Oh, there’s been some muttering over the years of a chapbook or a collection of the cowboy style poetry. I am a babe in the woods when it comes to the process and at self-promotion. If I had to sell anything to make a living it would not take me long to starve to death, notwithstanding my massive bulk. Sometime before I expire I hope to no longer have to hold down a job so I can do whatever I damned well please. In any event, I am leaving all of my writing and photeaux to daughter Beth, my current Administrative Assistant in hopes that someday she will be able to make heads and tails out of some of it and somehow profit.



I'd love to read more of your Funeral Home Diaries, do you have more of them?


Funny you should mention those obscure pieces. I do have a couple more. Like all of us, I am my own harshest critic and a brutal self-censor. It’s not like they are not suitable to be posted. I really pissed one woman off with one of them. We jousted online for a time until I finally grew weary of the dullard. Another person thought all of it is fiction, or at best over-embellished, particularly the story about my buddy who was very accomplished on a full-sized accordion. He came in one evening when we had no bods on the premises and after the doors were locked played some of the best Vincent Price type Muzak I will ever hear. What is so unbelievable about that? He was a big guy, wild looking with an Australian Shepherd eye who had been a Golden Gloves boxer. We got a bit carried away in a saloon one fine evening and it was obvious that the bouncers were really scared to death of him. Oh, did I mention that I was a “night man” at a big funeral home for a year? No, no, this is all very, very real. You cain’t make stuff like this up.



What and who do you find in everyday life that inspires you to write?


I am inspired by what is all around me including but not limited to the nonsense and divers and sundry white noise spinning around in my noggin. I am inspired by everything I see; everything I hear; everything I experience. Everything. I try to be inspired in some way by everyone I come in contact with.



Duke, do you have any advice for serious poets and authors or even not so "Serious" ones?


For the not so serious especially and the serious, for that matter, I would say, “Get really serious!” Save all of your stuff in multiple places, especially unfinished pieces as you may come back upon one of them and proceed to knock it out of the park. That’s easy for me to say. I desperately need to get serious my own little self. I always maintained that I write for my own amusement and therapy, and if even one other person gets off on it, that’s gravy. Always carry a pen and notebook, or a laptop. Best of all a voice recorder. A person should make note of every word, phrase, thought and experience as any one of them could turn into a gem at some time. Most of all, do not let anyone tell you how to write or what to write about.



Who are your two favorite authors and why do they appeal to you?


I have to admit that I really enjoy reading P. J. O’Rourke, particularly his tome, “Parliament of Whores”. I also get a real charge of anything Bill Maher comes up. Imagine, two people seemingly at opposite ends of the political spectrum…or are they?



What are your hobbies and interests, other than writing?


First and foremost, I am a musician; I have been singing very seriously for 45 years. In addition to being a part of groups of all sizes I have sung very badly at about a dozen weddings when I was younger and very poorly at more funerals than I care to remember. Before I got “all bunged up”, as the old man used say, I kept at fighting weight by walking my dog, Aarfy Aardvark for 35 miles plus per week, swimming a mile daily in the summer months and playing a bunch, and I mean a bunch of really awful golf in all kinds of weather. I recently got serious about my photeaux and obtained a decent camera. I enjoy racing through the deer zone at 0400 to get where I want to be before first light. I don’t need a drone to fly. I managed to peddle 31 pieces last year at Farmers Markets and whatnot. However, I must say that I was a bit surprised at all of the Philistines that blundered by, eyes closed, mouths open. I do not tinker with 99 per cent of my shots; at most I straighten and crop out some things around the edges. It seems like when I download the shots I am totally amazed at what I see as opposed to what I think I saw.



What person of present, or any other time period, would you most like to have a conversation with and what would you like to discuss with them?


I’d dig the Old Man up if I could bring him back to life, maybe with a double shot of “Old Rocking Chair”. I need to know more, as much as I can possibly soak in about the history of Breedtown in the South Fork Teton Canyon, a real place alluded to by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. in his novels, the “Indian Cemetery” at that location as well as stories about the old-timers in the Elizabeth, Saypo, Bellview, Dearborn and Blackleaf communities.



What is the favorite location you have traveled to and why is it your favorite?


I really haven’t travelled far from Dullsville, although when I was 11, along with Mother and my older brother spent 6 weeks living with family in the village of Combe Down a “suburb” of Bath. My memory is so good that at times I wish it would fail me. I remember so much, Stonehenge, Winchester Cathedral, Bath Abbey, H.M.S. Victory at Plymouth, Westminster Cathedral, the Roman baths dating back to Julius Caesar for which the city is named…the list goes on and on.



What place you have never visited would you like to travel to?


I have never had the urge to roam too far afield from my home base. If anything I wish I could turn back the clock to a time when I wasn’t so damned bunged up as there is so much I wish I could explore on foot within a 25 mile radius of the Exact Geographic Center of the Middle of Nowhere. Sometimes I wish I could walk up Tin Can Coulee to the Vast Forever of Watson Flats into Infinity. I have sometimes fantasized about a latter-day Wild West scenario to live out the rest of my daze. I have now ruled out Syria but am still very seriously considering Patagonia….



What literary projects are you working on now?


I have a couple of ideas for stories from researching some interesting things in the public record. Once I get focused I can really rip into something. I still have the idea of a chapbook, but don’t know if I should go down the tired (to a certain extent) old Cowboy Poetry trail or really let ‘er rip with the wacked out stuff about atomic skies, mushroom clouds and being surrounded by ICBM’s. It seems that we are expendable in this section; I see so many missile sites as I travel by motorcar, even along the Park to Park Highway. I think that I write in the Vision-Metaphysical and Philosophy categories, a lot, although at times I am sure that much is doggerel, or worse, tripe.



What would you like to accomplish during this year in your life and in your writing?


i just want to be a good person i don’t understand rude coarse or boorish behavior
i want to continue writing in any genre that flies out so fast that my fingers can’t type fast enough when the well is dry i get a bit tense but when I am on the words come out like projectile vomit or big time reverse peristalsis of the esophagus if you will, so much of my writing is stream of consciousness with little or no editing (obviously) also to keep being an opportunist with a camera there i just got a bit of dalton trumbo out of my system….



What do you consider your greatest accomplishment in life?


My family, of course. Early on I had three pieces published in the E-Zine “The Writers Room” (Simone Nielsen, Editor), the first of which was a tribute to my wife Carol titled, “Where Were You?” I could not be prouder of the kiddies for the people that they have become. Another piece Simona published way back then was titled, “Blinded by the Blood” and it is still one of the best examples of twisting and turning of the English language that I have ever produced. I met Rick Majers at The Writers Room and credit him with turning me on to Authors Den. Thank you Rick, wherever you are….



Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?


First of all, I would like to tell you, “Thank you kindly!” for encouraging me and taking the time to read my stuff. Belle, it is obvious that you have read quite a bit of it and I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. You have been at the top of your game for as long as I have known you. You were the first to welcome me to AD and referred to yourself as some kind of ex-officio greeter. Many thanks too, to everyone who has read me and to the small cadre of dear friends that I have made at AD. I know that I get a lot more reads than comments, although the people with whom I interact on a regular basis are those for whom I have the highest regard. Thank you; thank you….



Tell us briefly about your philosophy of life.


I really admire Ellen DeGeneres and the way she signs off on her shows, “Be kind to one another.” I say, “Commit an Act of Random Kindness TODAY!” It might just be a word, a smile…any small thing…and any BIG things whenever you get a chance. While I believe that the best gifts are those given with little or no fanfare, I committed a very small act of random kindness last week and big time benefits are still pouring in. “Pay it forward” is not like some B.S. chain letter. Or like a simpering Facebook post from some lost soul inviting one to click “like” and type “amen” so some anal pore can infect your computer. “Pay it forward” is real. If you sincerely believe that there is going to be a Second Coming, then by God, Christian, don’t let it pass you by…BTW, I love you too.



Duke it's been a pleasure interviewing you. Your bio says, "You either love him or you hate him," I love you Duke, I enjoy your uniqueness, your honesty, your grit and I'm sure you have many readers who feel the same way. Thank you and keep penning that special, unique poetry.