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Home , Baxter Black, Charles Badger Clark, Cowboy, Cowboy poetry, Red Steagall

poetry: Words of the land and a lifestyle

By Candy Moulton January 8, 1987 – the Tonight Show Topographer, doctor and In- audience might have expected Johnny dian agent Valentine T. McGillycuddy Carson’s quips, but almost certainly met at Fort Laramie in most in the television audience did not 1875 as he prepared to set off with the anticipate and Waddie Newton-Jenney Scientific Expedition Mitchell. These two – a former large- in an exploration of the . Of animal veterinarian and a the young woman who even then was buckaroo – had heretofore shared their brand of with the people who understood the lifestyle, but Carson gave them a national family audiences. He shocked everyone platform, and they took hold of it with in the room filled with ranchers and both hands – much like you’d do when business owners, and the town preacher, working with or . when he took one prominent rancher’s Black, who signs his autograph custom , punched out the upside down and backwards, had crown, bent down the brim, and let one been traveling the small-town cir- of his poems come to life. (I’ve always cuit for a few years. One of his early wondered if he had to make repara- Waddie Mitchell at the 2017 Rural Roundup in performances took place in Saratoga, tion!) Nevada. Sydney Martinez , in 1980 when the president One of the grandfathers of cowboy making a name and reputation as a of the Chamber of Commerce, the poetry is Charles Badger Clark, who hard worker with a soft heart, McGil- local veterinarian, invited Black to published his first poetry collection lycuddy wrote: “She was something be the keynote speaker at the annual 1917. He was living in Arizona where like Topsy in Uncle Toms Cabin, she was chamber dinner. After din- the landscape of the Mogollon Rim and not exactly ‘raised she ner it did not take long for a cowboy good with a rope inspired one growed.’” Black to have the audience of his best-known pieces: “The Glory The same might laughing as he shared Trail,” often better known as “High be said about cow- one poem after another Chin Bob.” That poem spread around boy poetry. – many of them quite the country, took on different verses ribald and not suited for and became a classic cowboy song.

Campfre entertainment at Wyoming’s Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering. Candy Moulton

FEBRUARY 2020 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 11 Sydney Martinez Sydney Martinez Johnny D. Boggs From left, the Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada; Jerry Brooks at Elko in 2017; and Jo Kirkwood at last year’s International Western Music Association conference.

The Glory Trail A Border Affair the poet laureate of in (High-Chin Bob) Spanish is the lovin’ tongue, 1937. His work was published in Sunset ’Way high up the Mogollons, Soft as music, light as spray. Magazine, Collier’s, Scribner’s, Arizona Among the mountain tops, ’Twas a girl I learnt it from, Highways and by Century Magazine and A lion cleaned a yearling’s Livin’ down Sonora way. The Rotarian. And licked his thankful chops, I don’t look much like a lover, *** When on the picture who should ride, Yet I say her love words over It may seem that cowboy poetry was A-trippin’ down a slope, Often when I’m all alone — born in 1985 in Elko, Nevada, at the But High-Chin Bob, with sinful pride “Mi amor, mi corazon.” first Cowboy Poetry Gathering orga- And mav’rick hungry rope. – Badger Clark nized by Mitchell, Hal Cannon and a – Badger Clark Clark’s early poetry has roots in Ari- host of other cowboy performers. There Perhaps even better known is Clark’s zona, but he left that state in 1925 and in a school gym, Mitchell, who had “The Cowboy’s Prayer,” which has resettled in the Black Hills of South been writing and reciting poetry since been recited at , gather- Dakota in a small cabin in Custer State he was 10 and cowboying since he was ings and events across for Park. There for the next 30 years he 16, gave his first public performance. decades. Another Clark classic became wrote poetry. The landscape of the But Mitchell and the other perform- a song covered by many performers Northern Plains and Black Hills is ers that year were following in Clark’s since its first recording by . reflected in later poems. He became footsteps.

Gatherings across the West (Check websites for specific dates)

Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering Golden, CO Durango, CO January October ColoradoCowboyGathering.com DurangoCowboyPoetryGathering. org National Cowboy Poetry Festival January-February Cowboy Gathering Elko, NV & Festival NationalCowboyPoetryGathering. Fort Worth, TX org Jim Jones and Doug Figgs perform at Wyoming’s October Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering. Candy RedSteagallCowboyGathering.com Cowboy Poetry Moulton & Music Gathering Heber Valley Western Music Grand Encampment Cowboy Sierra Vista, AZ & Cowboy Poetry Gathering Gathering February Heber City, UT Encampment, WY CowboyPoets.com Autumn July HeberValleyCowboyPoetry.com Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival GrandEncampmentGathering.org Santa Clarita, CA National Cowboy Symposium April & Celebration CowboyFestival.org Lubbock, TX September 12 Cowboy.org 12 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 his cowboy experience for his original poems. “All the time I was growing up we had these old cowboys around,” he has said. “We didn’t have electricity and that meant we didn’t have TV. We had darn poor radio too …. When you live in close proximity like that with the same folks month after month, one of your duties is to entertain each other, and I suppose that’s where the whole tradition of cowboy poetry 2017 -winning poet Floyd Beard performing in 2019. Johnny D. Boggs started.” Like Clark, who often had his poems Cannon wrote of the roots of cow- “adapted” by other writers, Gail I. boy poetry: “The fact is that the first Gardner battled a constant stream of an estimated 1,500 short stories and cowboy poetry event in Elko where folks who recited his poem “The Sierry novelettes, about 1,200 nonfiction polite society was invited took place Petes (or Tying Knots in the Devil’s articles, and some 2,000 poems. April 3, 1926 when Badger Clark Tail),” the presenters often giving Buck Ramsey cowboyed across West came to Elko and entertained a large credit to “Anonymous” as the writer. until a wreck put him in crowd at the Elko High School Gym- Gardner wrote that poem in 1917 and a wheel chair. Ramsey had performed nasium.” it has endured as a favorite for per- with a band before his accident and, After that performance, the local formers who blend their own original once he could no longer work as a cow- paper said of Clark: “There is the material with classic poems or songs. boy, he started writing for newspapers, naturalness of the westerner about The Sierry Petes magazines and turning his cowboy him and about his writing which (or, Tying Knots in the experiences into poetry and songs. proves that his heart not only was Devil’s Tail) His epic 50-page poem, “And as I in the west but has beaten in tune Away up high in the Sierry Petes, Rode out in the Morning” (also known with it ever since it began its human Where the yeller pines grows tall, as “Grass” and “Anthem”), shares labors. He is not an easterner come Ole Sandy Bob an’ Buster Jig, the experiences of a 14-year-old boy’s west – he is a westerner who never Had a rodeer camp last fall. initiation into the cowboy way of life goes east – unless he must do so in Oh, they taken their hosses and during the middle-to-late 1800s in West the line of duty.” runnin’ irons Texas. Texas Tech University Press Above all, cowboy poetry is an oral And maybe a dog or two, published the poem in 1993 under its art form; you can read it, but in most An’ they ‘lowed they’d brand all the original name. cases it’s best to hear it recited or per- long-yered , And as I Rode out in the Morning formed. And many of the best cowboy That come within their view. And as I ride out on the morning poets working today are performers as – Gail I. Gardner Before the bird, before the dawn, well as writers. They bring their words The roster of great cowboy poets I’ll be this poem, I’ll be this song. to life as they share the actions of men stretches across the My heart will beat the world a warning (and women) in the cow camp, 20th Century and to the — the branding pen or the cow barn. present. Among those Those horsemen will ride all with me, “I can’t ever remember ‘finding’ who have written and And we’ll be good, and we’ll be free. cowboy poetry,” Mitchell says of recited to small and – Buck Ramsey the entertaining and enduring art large audiences are *** of cowboy storytelling. “It was Bruce Kiskadden, The poetry gathering that started always there. The cowboys sure often called the “na- in Elko in 1985 is now designated by never called it poetry.” tional cowboy poet Congress as the National Cowboy Mitchell’s writing endeavors laureate,” and former Poetry Gathering. It takes place the include his poetry Waddie’s WWA president end of January each year – a time Whole Load. “Still There,” the song Squire Omar Barker, when cowboys can sometimes get away Mitchell wrote with Juni Fisher, won whose initials S. O. B. certainly lent from the ranch and their cowboy work a Spur from WWA in 2014 for Best themselves to some humor. Born in a (if they can find someone to feed the Song, and in 2016 he won a second New log cabin, Barker pub- cattle) and join in the fun that in- Spur for Best Song for “The ,” lished many , including Vientos cludes poetry and music performances, co-written with Trinity Seely. de las Sierras, Buckaroo Ballads and Raw- workshops and exhibits. The events Mitchell says his imagination “got hide Rhymes: Singing Poems of the Old take place on large and small stages let out of the gate” and he draws from West. During a prolific career he wrote throughout the northern Nevada city, FEBRUARY 2020 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 13 continuing well into the wee hours of the morning in informal jam sessions. On the stage in Elko are the men and women and youngsters who are carry- ing on the traditions. They range from Mitchell to Gardner’s grandson Gail Steiger, who has performed throughout Gail Steiger the and across Europe. Sharing the stage are Doris Daley of Canada and Carol Heuchan from and young poets like Thatch Elmer. One of the best wordsmiths, who has been a regular on the cowboy poetry circuit for decades, is former bronc rider Paul Zarzyski, who won his first poetry Spur in 2004 for Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat. This poet has teamed with several song- writers including Ian Tyson and Don Edwards and his talent as a song- writer has been recognized as well. He won a Spur Award for best song for “Hang-n-Rattle,” in 2010, which was co-written with Wylie Gustafson. He teamed with Tom Russell and earned a Spur in songwriting in 2011 for “Heart of a Horse.” Zarzyski has written a dozen books of poetry and prose and produced several CDs of his poetry and music. From that first poetry performance in Elko by Clark, to the lineup of poets who take the stage in Nevada nearly Paul Zarzyski a hundred years later, the breadth and depth of this unique art form just keeps expanding. The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko started with poetry at the core, and it remains a gathering with significant focus on poetry, with a healthy dose of fun, some music and plenty of opportunities to learn more about cowboy lore. Workshops in Elko range from rawhide braiding to hat making to cooking, as the gathering includes education programs with roots on the range. There have been programs on the cowboys or cowhunters of , the paniolo of , the of Old Mexico and the drovers of Australia. The gatherings across the West provide opportunities to hear the work of today’s cadre of cowboy poets – like Red Steagall, Andy Hedges and WWA members Deanna Dickin- son McCall, Sharon O’Toole, Pat Frolander, Dawn Senior, Rod Miller, karla k. morton and John D. Nesbitt – sharing their original work – or sometimes reciting the classics of the old poetry masters.

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Connection Skin’s leathery as the thick, cracked covers of old Bibles. By Betty Lynne McCarthy The sun’s the only god Thin mane hair Mecate coil taps on slender nose, who’s not forsaken them twists and braiding carried forward, as Old Satan, on a landscape ancient art Vaqueros. bereft of life but for needlelike

Down from hand to dancing hoof spines of Thompson’s Yucca, tattooing measured rhythm, leers beneath his scales my center sinking, seeking balance, of dark diamonds. matching force I’m given.

Cradled slickfork throne Hiking the Sierras creates a live vignette, By Red Shuttleworth my soul now sings with horse alone, The mistake is to think there is a trick … part centaur and part duet. A magic song … a woman you will meet

To feel this fine connection riding on a train to Reno. Reno’s hot this time of year freely ’cross the plains, like a nervous breakdown or drunkard’s bottom-rock. achieving title “horseman” goes beyond all earthly gains. You’re downhill from Reno, not quite past a casino’s wilted lettuce misfortune, slots logic, Where Even Diamonds Are Dark a dental bridge sucked loose by a wedge of chewy coconut-raspberry bread, and further slots logic. By Larry D. Thomas The sky’s You’re not hiking the Sierras. You’re more likely so inscrutably blue and vast sleepless, making sharp turns into filthy rest stops. only the locals’ rugged cholla crosses (continued on page 16) keep its sagging weight POETRY CORNER from crushing them.

FEBRUARY 2020 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 15 The Bering Land Bridge Horseback Through and the Badlands the Badlands By Alan Birkelbach By karla k. morton I do not consider it coincidence: He said he rode out to this spot two days before, on the bush plane to the Bering Land Bridge this cowboy named Marshall the co-pilot, sitting up front, was a dog. on a horse named Cowboy,

The pilot pointed out to us said he saddled up at midnight though he was tired the shallow water and the curving finger and sore from of land that once connected this to that. the day of ranching.

It was hard to reset the mind to millennia And there it was: those Northern Lights when we were soaking in the Serpentine Hot Springs, dancing all the way down South Dakota. the ancient water sizzling on the tub boards. Imagine, he’d said, gifted such a sight. But later, we thought about the Dakotas, the first bony evi- Something like that dence of dog you carry with you jutting out of the towers of sandstone, something still vibrating, something that walked here. like a love note folded tight against your chest The canine feet with us, alongside us. The cold wind, the steaming waters. something you bring out The days of ocean and dust. when no one’s around; desert hoof-steps What we could see from our vantage point. the only noise; What we depended on, a snout that led us. those Badlands crowned Something older than us, an echoing howl. in emerald joy. Poets’ parks tour ends From Staff Reports “The Words of Preservation: Poets Laureate National Park Tour” is complete. As of November 25, 2019, WWA members karla k. morton and Alan Birkelbach, both Texas poets laureate, have visited all 61 national parks in the United States. Western Music & The 3½-year adventure was designed to document travels within the parks Cowboy Poetry with the intent of helping to preserve karla k. morton and protect the nation’s natural wonders. are alive and well at the A poetry and photography book, pub- International Western lished by TCU Press, should be available this fall. Music Association – And with this year’s WWA convention set for Rapid City, the poets had this to Join Us Today. say about South Dakota’s national parks: “There is incredible, and unique, wonder within each of the national Alan Birkelbach parks in South Dakota alone. In , there is beauty both above and below the ground; the very earth breathes. Badlands National Park www.iwesternmusic.org is a maze of trails winding between towers of dirt and stone. A combination of prairie, fossil beds and forbidding, jagged vistas, it is truly an amazing sight.” 16 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020