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Bar-D January 2010: Featuring Jane Morton
Cowboy Poetry at the BAR-D Ranch
by Margo Metegrano, Editor, CowboyPoetry.com January brings the top cowboy poetry event of the year: the Western Folklife Center's 26th annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, January 23-30, 2010 ( www.westernfolklife.org http://www.westernfolklife.org. Along with the best in cowboy poetry and Western music, there are workshops, seminars, exhibits, and other special events. Colorado poet Jane Morton, whose work often focuses on her family's ranching roots, makes a return invited appearance to the 2010 Gathering. She's participated previously as a poet, and several of her short films about her family's ranch have become a part of the WFC's Deep West Video project. Her forthcoming book, In This Land of Little Rain, includes over fifty poems and many photographs that span her nearly eighty years of Western living on the high plains of northeastern Colorado. The book takes its title from this included poem: When the Grass Greens Up This Spring Let me be in Colorado when the grass greens up this spring. Let me see blue sky above me and the hawks a'circling. Let me ride out through the pastures and across the low-slung hills. Let me see sand lilies blooming, thrill to hear lark buntings' trills. Let me find an Easter daisy near as pretty as its name. Let me see the orange-red paintbrush light the prairie like a flame. Let me smell the rain-drenched sagebrush, breathe in air that's clear of smog. Let me see the white-faced babies with their amber eyes agog. Let me watch a herd of pronghorn flowing over sunlit plains. Let me listen for the swallows and the cries of sandhill cranes. In a world of many wonders, nothing beats spring on the plain And the greening of the grasslands in this land of little rain. © 2008, Jane Morton, All rights reserved Jane Morton's previous book, Cowboy Poetry: Turning to Face the Wind (winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award) includes stories, poems, and photos about her pioneering family. It is available from $19.95 plus $4.50 shipping and handling from Jane Morton, 12710 Abert Way, Colorado Springs, CO 80908. Find more about hundreds of cowboy poets and Western musicians at CowboyPoetry.com. It's an on-going gathering, with continuous news, features, poetry, lyrics, gathering reports, and an extensive event calendar. Come on by and stay a while. |
