Cowboy Legacy & Western Ways

“Bucking off” takes on a whole different meaning at September’s 12^th annual National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo (http://www.nationalcowboypoetryrodeo.com/). This year the exciting event takes place in Montrose, Colorado (September 10-12, 2009) in conjunction with the San Juan Western Heritage Festival (www.sjwesternfestival.com).

Poet Sam Jackson conceived the unique National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo, based on his belief in "excellence through competition.” Sam likes to say the competition helps “make fair poets good and good poets better.”

Poets compete—rodeo style—for $6000 in prize money, silver buckles, and trophies. Smoke Wade, a popular poet, writer, gathering organizer, emcee, and past champion contends it’s “all about the silver buckle.” This year Smoke will emcee the events at the rodeo and festival.

Smoke Wade grew up in the 1950s and 1960s on a remote cattle ranch in the Hells Canyon. He tells, “The lifestyle of Hells Canyon cowboys was a way of life that was often considered to be thirty years behind the rest of the world. Lacking other forms of entertainment, stories, tall-tales and poetry were standard fare in the cow camp and they helped relieve boredom while on the trail.”

He says that in writing the following poem, "I was trying to re-capture the memory of the days when we used to trail large herds of cattle out of the Hells Canyon of the Snake River as the herd followed the seasons. Those days are gone now along with the cattle ranches in Hells Canyon.”

Trailing the Herd

They moved often then,
From warm winter grounds by the river's mouth,
Where mothers gave birth,
On rocky hillsides that faced the sunny south.

Up steep trails, they moved,
Through saddles bathed in late spring showers,
Above the canyons filled with pine,
To mountain meadows with purple flowers.

Past green ponds, they moved,
Through huckleberries on the summit high,
Then swiftly down the Devil's run.
To the land of endless sky.

Through rolling hills, they moved,
Down dusty lanes in August sun,
To fall pasture with ample room,
For cows to rest and calves to run.

Behind barbed wire, now they move,
There to fatten and to graze,
The winter grounds sit idle now,
Modern times with different ways.

Yes, they moved often then,
Through sumac gullies and mountain streams,
Before trailing the herd became a part,
Of our memories and dreams.

© 1991, Smoke Wade, All rights reserved 
 

"Trailing the Herd" is included on Smoke Wade's CD, Smoke Wade, a Legend in His Own Mind, available for $15.00 postpaid from: Smoke Wade, 716 Pear Tree Lane, Mesquite, NV 89027; smokewade@clarkston.com. It is also on the 2007 volume of The BAR-D Roundup, an annual CD of classic and contemporary poetry from CowboyPoetry.com.

---

There's poetry and information about hundreds of cowboy poets and Western musicians at CowboyPoetry.com.  It's an on-going gathering, with continuous news, features, event calendars, the best in classic and contemporary cowboy poetry and Western music lyrics, and an e-newsletter.

The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Four CD includes poems recited by J.B. Allen, Jerry A. Brooks, Allen Clark, Ken Cook, Doris Daley, Elizabeth Ebert, Gail I. Gardner, DW Groethe,Yvonne Hollenbeck, Linda Kirkpatrick, Jo Lynne Kirkwood, Slim McNaught, Larry McWhorter, Rod Miller, Dick Morton, Jane Morton, Andy Nelson, Joel Nelson, Rodney Nelson, Ray Owens, Buck Ramsey, Pat Richardson, Randy Rieman, Georgie Sicking, Jesse Smith, Jay Snider, Gail Steiger,  and Diane Tribitt, with a PSA by Baxter Black. Learn more at CowboyPoetry.com.

CowboyPoetry.com is a project of the non-profit Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry. We're supported by people like you.  Please join us!