Cowboy Poetry

The terms "cowboy poetry", "cowboy poems", and "cowboy poets" may sound strange to some people. For me, they were intriguing terms that I wanted to explore. I see frequent references to and articles about them and cowboy poetry gatherings in magazines like Western Horseman, American Cowboy and Cowboys And Indians.

According to the Western Folklife Center Archive, "It [is] a jazz of Irish storytelling, Scottish seafaring and cattle tending, Moorish and Spanish horsemanship, European cavalry traditions, African improvisation, and Native American experience, if also oppression. . . . the songs and poems of the American cowboy are part of that old tradition of balladry."

It's a way of telling stories about the west using poetic devices. Not just stories about the past; cowboy poetry also tells stories about the life of a cowboy in the present day. Here's a sample of cowboy poetry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCzeNlEfvVU Cowboy poetry is believed to have started in Civil War days.  Cowboys created poems while on the lonely trail of herding cattle.

Cowboy poetry gatherings are held throughout the western states, including Arizona, Texas, Montana, Idaho, Nebraska and Colorado. The biggest is the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV. This is a week-long event held at the end of January every year. It started as a free gathering for cowboys and their families. It's now blossomed into a ticketed event. Working cowboys can receive free tickets.

I've never attended a cowboy poetry gathering, although they sound intriguing. I'd like to try one of the smaller ones before braving the crowds at the National Cowboy Gathering in Elko.

Not knowing much about the life of a working cowboy - other than that it's hard work - at this point I wouldn't even attempt to write cowboy poetry. I have written haiku about horses, though. Here are some I wrote a couple of years ago:

Horse and rider race
Quickly around three barrels
New rodeo queen

Wild mustangs run free
Untamed by any man's hand
Freedom's champions

Cowboy rides wild bronc
He's tough enough to wear pink
Riding for the cure

I would like to try writing about cowboys, cowgirls and horses using iambic pentameter. Maybe a sonnet about a cowboy, a cowgirl and their horses?

I'm looking forward someday to hearing cowboy poetry written and performed by working cowboys and cowgirls.