Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering

by Hal Cannon (Editor), Hal Cannon (Introduction)

Overview

This collection of poems was chosen from among 10, 000 gathered from cowboy reciters, ranch poets and from a library of over 200 published works of cowboy verse. One third of the poems are classics that have proven their vitality by having lived in the hearts and minds of cowboys and ranchers for decades. The remaining two-thirds are new, created within the last few years.

"Most cowboy poems speak of real events and people, from bucking horses and cagey cows to old Stetson hats and long winter travels. Although they focus on the ordinary stuff of life, their truths . . . seem no less eternal than those penned by William Shakespeare. Some cowboy poems are bust-a-gut funny; a few are downright dirty . . . most carry an honest, primitive power."

—Michael Riley, TIME Magazine

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879052089
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	04/01/1990
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	211,323
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 6.25(h) x 0.48(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hal Cannon was the first director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, and founder of the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He lives in Salt Lake City.

Hal Cannon was the first director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, and founder of the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He lives in Salt Lake City.

Read an Excerpt

Range Cow in Winter by Vern Mortensen

Have you listened still on a desert hill At the close of a bitter day, When the orange sun in wispy clouds Was set in a greenish haze? In a cold white world of deepening drifts That cover the land like a pall, Then the plaintive bawl of a hungry cow Is the loneliest sound of all!

Have you listened still on a desert hill When the world was cold and drear, When the tinkling bells of a herd of sheep Was the nearest sound you''d hear, And the haunting notes of a lone coyote whose Evening''s hunting howl Rose wild and clear in the cold blue night, And was answered by the hoot of an owl?

But when the scanty grass lies covered deep By the snow that lies like a pall, Then the plaintive bawl of a hungry cow Is the loneliest sound of all!

Table of Contents

Introductio

Acknowledgments

Allen McCanless

Gail Gardner

Anonymous

Anonymous

S. Omar Barker

Larry Chittendon

T.J. McCoy

Anonymous

Eugene Ware

Anonymous

D.J. O''Malley

James Barton Adams

Bruce Kiskaddon

Henry Herbert Knibbs

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

Curley Fletcher

Badger Clark

Nyle A. Henderson

Carlos Ashley

Georgie Sicking

Jon Bowerman

Howard Norskog

Waddie Mitchell

Ernie Fanning

Jesse Smith

Buck Wilkerson

Bob Schild

Jim Hofer

Baxter Black

Charles A. Kortes

Nick Johnson

Linda Ash

Bill Lowman

Ross Knox

Don Ian Smith

Melvin L. Whipple

Lucky Whipple

Gorden Eastman

Duane Reece

Harold Otto

Vern Mortensen

R. O. Munn

Drummond Hadley

Dick Gibford

Bill Simpson

Barney Nelson

Jim Bollers

Owen Barton

Don Bell

Wallace McRae

Vess Quinlan