Song of the Balcones

Song of the Balcones is a 750-line dramatic monolog depicting the fatal collision of three cultures in Central and South Texas. An epic ballad written to be read aloud with music, it is composed in 10-line stanzas of iambic pentameter, arrayed in five cantos. The work debuted on KUT-FM radio in 1988, read by the author with the backing of a jazz ensemble.

This poem depicts the bloody battles of a 19th Century war between Mexico’s young government and Native American’s of the Comanche, Waco, and Tawakoni tribes.