By the luck of the draw I was in Alpine Texas at the same time as the 27th Annual Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and I immersed in the two day event. It was an emotional experience for me because there I reconnected with my cowboy heart. I technically was never a cowboy purely for the reason that I didn't rope; which I'm sure was the cultural result of being a southeastern farm boy rather than a western child. But, nonetheless, I was raised by horses, had a hat and boots as soon as I saved the money (age 9), and had cows; and a cowboy heart.
Cowboys embody the "essential American soul" and are true American nobility - their status comes not from birth but from skill acquired through hard work, and endurance. "Cowboys poets" are, for the most part, cowboys and cowgirls who are poets; they do rope. And they are literate. Their poetry honors family, small town community, tradition, heroes, good horses and slow rain; and love of the English language.
The performers range from working cowboys and ranchers who perform their own material to those who recite Robert W. Service or J. Milton Hayes or Rudyard Kipling and the like, as part of their routine. The 48 featured performers ranged from the woman who cuts 18 cords of firewood each year and is regarded as the foremost walking anthology of cowboy poetry, to the woman who became the Western Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year after birthing 10 children and getting them off to school, to the Viet Nam veteran and local rancher who has been poet-in-residence with an arts group in England and a Grammy nominee, to the rodeo cowboy and judge from Oklahoma whose poetry honors men "…who rode good horses". And then there was Baxter Black; clown, lunatic, star of NPR, the Johnny Carson Show, etc. - and the cowboy poet that you know if you only know one cowboy poet.
I would like to gather again next year.
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If you would like to see my collection of Carolina Lowcountry memories—"Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork," you can view the book trailer here, and see the book page here on the publisher's website. The book is also available from Amazon, B&N, and your independent local bookseller.
