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Welcome to our tenth annual Christmas at the BAR-D! We keep Christmas throughout the season, with frequent additions of news, poetry, songs, and more.  Along with the poetry and more, we post holiday news and features, below. Christmas poem and song submissions were welcome through December 15, 2009. Submissions are now closed. There's a special Winter/Christmas Art Spur—a painting by notable Western Artist Tim Cox—with submissions welcome through December 15, 2009. Submissions are now closed. New Years' toasts were welcome through December 30. Both are described below. The perfect gifts...     The BAR-D Roundup CDs are compilations of vintage and contemporary recordings of some of yesterday's and today's best classic and contemporary cowboy poetry. The CDs have received wide airplay and excellent reviews. The CDs are distributed to libraries in the Center's Rural Library Project, offered to supporters as premiums, and each is available for a $20 donation and there are special bundle offers as well.  Read about them and find links to all four volumes here. A Special Year-end Message This past year, did you find something at CowboyPoetry.com that interested you? Did you visit for poetry, news, event information, features? Was your own poem included at the BAR-D? Was your local gathering announced, or were you a part of a gathering report? Did we share your news with our many readers? Your support is vital. 'Tis the season. If you enjoy features such as Christmas at the BAR-D,  there's no better time to show your support. All that happens at the BAR-D is made possible by the essential contributions of generous supporters: CowboyPoetry.com; Cowboy Poetry Week and its annual Western art poster; The BAR-D Roundup compilation CD; and the Rural Library Project that distributes posters and CDs to rural libraries. We've received generous donations of $10 and donations of $1000; and we are grateful for them all.  Become a supporter, make a tax-deductible donation, perhaps in memory of someone who treasured our Western Heritage: Make a difference. Read some of our supporters' comments here,  visit the Wall of Support, and donate! Read all about our history, the Center, and about how you can be a part of it all right here. You can make a donation by check or money order, by mail (please use the form here for mail to PO Box 330444, San Francisco, CA 94133) or by a secure, on-line credit card payment through PayPal (a PayPal account is not required): CowboyPoetry.com is a project of The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, a tax-exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Act. Contributions to the Center are fully deductible for federal income tax purposes. As in all journalistic endeavors, no editorial preference is given to financial sponsors or supporters.

 

 

Poetry, Stories and More, below    

Christmas Art Spur and poetry and lyrics submissions

Christmas Links and News   

Western Christmas Books and Music (separate page)   

Find holiday events on our Events calendar

 

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Poetry and Songs, Classic and New and Old Favorites

 

See our 2009 Christmas Cowboy Poetry below

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See a complete list with links to all the holiday poems posted starting in 2000 here.

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You can view the yearly collections of classic and modern Christmas Cowboy Poetry from previous years: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 , 2004, 2003 ,  2002, 2001, and 2000.

 

 

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  Winter / Christmas Art Spur

 

Reproduction prohibited without express written permission

"Hicks' Hereford Heifers" by Tim Cox  

It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words...we know many that are worthy of a poem. In Art Spur, poets are invited to let selections of Western art inspire their poetry.

Our twentieth piece offered to "spur" the imagination—as a winter challenge and a part of Christmas at the  BAR-D—is noted Western artist Tim Cox' painting, "Hick's Hereford Heifers."

We were honored to have Tim Cox' painting, "At His Own Pace," as the official poster for Cowboy Poetry Week, 2007 (and as an Art Spur subject).

Poetry submissions were welcome from all, through December 15, 2009. Christmas themes were welcome. Submissions are now closed. Selected poems are posted here.
 

 

 

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Christmas Poems

Poets and songwriters are welcome to submit one Christmas poem or song for consideration, even if another poem or song or Art Spur poem is pending. Submissions were welcome through December 15, 2009. Submissions are now closed.

Selected poems are being posted. Find links below.

 

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New Year Toasts

   Your Western New Year Toasts were welcome. All were invited to submit up to three toasts, in the style, for example, of S. Omar Barker's:

May you never lose a stirrup,
May you never waste a loop;
May your can stay full of syrup,
And your gizzard full of whoop!
                              S. Omar Barker

Submissions were welcome through December 30, 2009. Submissions are now closed.

Find the New Year toasts here.

 

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Christmas Links and News

Email us your Christmas news items for consideration.

 

 

See the Events calendar for Christmas events.

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  Find selected Cowboy Christmas books and recordings here.

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  Jeri Dobrowski's Cowboy Jam Session column for December and November features great Christmas picks for music, cowboy poetry, books, and more.

Read Cowboy Jam Session columns here.

[photo by Jen Dobrowski]

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  Andy Nelson and Jim Nelson present their annual Clear Out West (C. O. W.) radio Christmas show on syndicated radio stations the week of December 21, 2009. The show is available on the internet starting the week of December 28, 2009, and available in the C.O.W. archives after that.

A "Best of C.O.W. 2009" special show airs on the radio on December 28, 2009 and is available on line the following week, and in the C.O.W. archives after that.

Listen to Clear Out West (C.O.W.) radio here.

[photo by Stuart Johnson]

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    Charley Engel ("Chuckaroo the Buckaroo") presents the Calling All Cowboys radio annual Christmas special, airing December 23-30, 2009. The show includes "two solid hours of Cowboy Christmas including a number of exclusives available only to Calling All Cowboys.

Listen to Calling All Cowboys radio here.

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  CowboyLegacy.org has a beautiful pairing of S. Omar Barker's poem, "Empty Saddles at Christmas" with Tim Cox' art, "Hick's Hereford Heifers." See that feature here (free subscription required).

Minnesota rancher, writer, poet, and editor Diane Tribitt introduced us to the Tim Cox painting, and it is the subject of the Winter/Christmas Art Spur.

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  Joe Baker writes:

I will be doing a special Christmas show on the Backforty Bunkhouse on Christmas Eve, rom 6am to 10am (Mountain), with KNMB, 96.7FM and KWMW, 105.1FM and at 8AM KRUI, 1490AM will be joining in.

This special 4-hour show will feature cowboy, western swing and classic country Christmas songs and poems. The show will be archived and available on demand.

My regular show on Saturday, December 26th will go on as usual with limited Christmas songs within each hour, 6am to 10am.
 

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  Totsie Slover's Real West from the Old West radio Christmas show airs Wednesday, December 23, from 10-12 noon (Mountain).

The show is available on demand for a week after the live broadcast.

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The newest, Christmas edition (Volume 43) of Joe Baker's Backforty Roundup is available. The Backforty Roundup is a monthly compilation of music and cowboy poetry, sent to over 170 Western radio stations and publications.  

Artists with Christmas songs include:

Rebecca Linda Smith - Blessed  
Johnny Lyon - A Soldier's Christmas  
Devon Dawson - Followin' On That Star  
Al Franklin - Our Christmastime In Warm Sunshine  
Luke Reed - Lone Star Christmas  
Jerry Webb - Christmas Time On The County Line  
Dick Hammonds - Home For Christmas  
John Bergstrom - It's Christmas Eve Again  
David E Young - Twinkle Little Star  

There are also standard songs. You can listen to the full tracks from Volume 43 the Backforty Roundup here at the Backforty Bunkhouse web site.

Read more in our news here.

 

Poems and More

Something most every day, along with selected classic and 
contemporary favorites from past years' celebrations

Newest below.

 

Contemporary classic: from the archives

It has become a tradition at Christmas at the BAR-D to start the season with the modern classic, Christmas Waltz, by Buck Ramsey (1938-1998). Buck Ramsey, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, is often referred to as "the spiritual leader of modern cowboy poetry." Chapters from his epic poem, Grass, are included on each edition of The BAR-D Roundup.

"Christmas Waltz" is included in a small book of the same name, and on a CD from the Western Folklife Center. Read more about the poem here along with the poem.

Find more about Buck Ramsey in our features here.

photo by Scott Braucher

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Contemporary: new

  What better way to jumpstart the season than with top cowboy poet Baxter Black's poem, Rudolph's Night Off. We thank Baxter for his generous permission.  The poem is included in Baxter's book, Cactus Tracks and Cowboy Philosophy.

Find more about Baxter Black in our feature here and be sure to visit www.BaxterBlack.com.

Read "Rudolph's Night Off" here.

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Contemporary: from the archives

  From our Christmas archives, it's a pleasure to bring back popular South Dakota poet Yvonne Hollenbeck's poem, The Perfect Gift. The poem is included in her award-winning book, From My Window.

Find more about Yvonne Hollenbeck in our feature here and at her web site, www.YvonneHollenbeck.com.

Read "The Perfect Gift" here.

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Contemporary: new

  We welcome a new poem from David Althouse, his tale of How Pecos Bill Saved Christmas.

Read more about David Althouse here at the BAR-D.

Read How Pecos Bill Saved Christmas here.

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Classic: from the archives

D.J. O'Malley wrote A Busted Cowboy's Christmas in 1893.

Find more about him and other poems in our feature here.

 

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Contemporary: from the archives

Curly Musgrave, who died December 13, 2009, wrote a beautiful poem, Prairie Silent Night. The poem appears on his Cowboy True CD and we're pleased to share it from our archives.

Find a tribute page here and more poems and lyrics by Curly Musgrave in our feature here.

photograph by Lori Faith Merritt (www.photographybyfaith.com)

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Contemporary: new

  Songwriter and poet Aspen Black shares a new song,  A Candle in the Window (Our Christmas Promise).

Find more about Aspen Black and her poetry and music in our feature here.
 

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Classic: from the archives

  S. Omar Barker (1894-1985) wrote a number of excellent Christmas poems, including Bunkhouse Christmas. The poem is included in his book, Rawhide Rhymes.

Find more about him and other poems in our feature here.

photo courtesy of the S. Omar Barker estate

 

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Contemporary: from the archives

  From our archives, we're glad to bring back Nevada writer and poet Hal Swift's Christmas Hayride.  Hal mentions the gal he married in his poem; Hal and Carol Swift celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary on May 11, 2009.

Hal also has a new Christmas story, "Charley's Christmas Tale," in his regular A Brush with an Old Sage column here at the Nevada Observer.

And, today (December 17) just happens to be Hal's birthday (you can email him: Hal_Swift(at)Yahoo.com).

Find more about Hal and more of his poems here at the BAR-D.

photo by Johnny Gunn

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Contemporary: new

  Washington State poet Joyce Johnson shares her latest Christmas poem, Christmas Spirit.

Find more about Joyce and more of her poems here at the BAR-D.

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Classic: new

  Arizona historian, writer, musician, and reciter Greg Scott has shared many rare poems and much information; we're grateful for his contributions.

Greg sent us a short, little-known Christmas poem by Badger Clark (1883-1957), titled Girl Wanted—Mistletoe .

reprinted with permission from Greg Scott's
Cowboy Poetry, Classic Poems & Prose by Badger Clark.
Badger Clark under the mistletoe on the Cross I Quarter Circle, 1906

See our feature about Badger Clark here .

Read  "Girl Wanted—Mistletoe" and more about it here.

photos courtesy of Greg Scott

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Classic: from the archives

Another classic Christmas favorite from our archive is Merry Christmas by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950).

The poem is one of Bruce Kiskaddon's annual Christmas poems for the Chuck Wagon Trailers, a group organized in 1931 "by old-time cowboys who were Hollywood's first stunt men and western stars."  This 1933 piece is posted courtesy of Bill Siems, whose recent, monumental book, Open Range; Collected Poems of Bruce Kiskaddon, includes more of those Christmas poems and all of Bruce Kiskaddon's known poetry. Siems notes that the poem was reprinted in the Western Livestock Journal in December, 1933.

(Below is Kiskaddon's "The Old Time Christmas.")

See our features about Bruce Kiskaddon here.

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Contemporary: from the archives

Some selections from the archive of Christmas poems:

  Dean Cook's "new look at a traditional song," Grubline Carol
  Jane Morton's bittersweet Christmas Memories
Doris Daley's atmospheric A Christmas Prayer
Deanna McCall's reverent Gifts in the Hay
  Pat Richardson's irreverent salute, Here's to the Cowboys

photo of Deanna McCall by Kevin Martini-Fuller; photo of Pat Richardson by Yvonne Hollenbeck
 

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Contemporary: new

  Wyoming radio host, popular emcee, writer, and poet Andy Nelson shares a fun new poem about Santa's Hired Hand (who prefers cowboy poetry over carols).

The poem is from Andy's forthcoming book, Riding with Jim; Adventures with Cowboys and Farriers. The book includes vintage photographs; poems and stories by Andy; and stories by his late father, James F. Walker Nelson. It's illustrated by top cowboy cartoonist Bonnie Shields (www.bonnieshields.com), and Andy sent along the illustration that goes with the poem:

illustration by Bonnie Shields (www.bonnieshields.com) from the forthcoming book by Andy Nelson,
Riding with Jim; Adventures with Cowboys and Farriers

Find more about Andy Nelson in our feature here and at his web site, www.cowpokepoet.com.

photo of Andy Nelson by Jeri Dobrowski

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Contemporary: new

    British Columbia cowboy and poet Mike Puhallo's weekly "Meadow Muffins" is also a Christmas greeting and...more. It's called Have a Politically Correct Green Christmas.

Find more about Mike Puhallo in our feature here and at his web site, www.mikepuhallo.com.

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Contemporary: new

Welcome Texas songwriter and poet Harry (Bill) Wolf and his poem, The Gift.

Read more about Harry (Bill) Wolf here at the BAR-D.

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Classic: from the archives

One of the best-loved Christmas classics is about "that lively gaited sworray," Larry Chittenden's Cowboy's Christmas Ball, which he dedicated "To the Ranchmen  of Texas." The poem is included in his 1893 book, Ranch Verses.

The Handbook of Texas Online presents a concise history: "The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball is an annual event in Anson, Texas, based on a nineteenth-century ballad. A frontier dance at Anson impressed William Lawrence Chittenden so much that he later wrote a poem about the event. He was staying overnight at the Star Hotel, where a Christmas dance was held annually in appreciation of the patronage of ranchers and cowboys. He watched the cowboys and their ladies dance the square, the schottische, the heel-and-toe polka, the waltz, and the Virginia reel. From his observations there, and perhaps at later dances, he wrote his poem "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball...." Read more at the Handbook of Texas Online.

The 75th consecutive re-enactment of the Texas Cowboys' Christmas Ball was held December 18, 2009.

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Classic: from the archives

  Classic Western writer Owen Wister (1860-1938), best known as the author of The Virginian, wrote a story we posted serially in a past Christmas at the BAR-D, A Journey in Search of Christmas. The story includes illustrations by Frederic Remington.

Find the entire story  here.
 

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Contemporary: from the archives

Additional special selections from the BAR-D archive of Christmas poems:

The late Rod Nichols' moving 'Neath a Christmas Sky

Jay Snider's jolly Santa's Helper

Sam Jackson's evocative Country Christmas

Linda Kirkpatrick's heart-rending One Less Chair at the Table

J.W. Beeson's outstanding Christmas Serenade

Jo Lynne Kirkwood's lyrical Bringin' Home Christmas

photo of Linda Kirkpatrick by Jeri Dobrowski

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Contemporary: new

And a selection of new poems:

Larry Wines' "tale of the days when the 1st U.S. Cavalry rode camels," Camelry Christmas

Karl Reed's inventive Santa Was a Cowboy

  C.W. (Charley) Bell's touching Big Jake's Christmas

Glen Enloe's nostalgic An Old Ranch Christmas

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Samuel J. Passamonte's  "Cowboy Christmas tree with antique Copenhagen lid ornament"

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Classic: from the archives

  S. Omar Barker (1894-1985) wrote one of the most widely known cowboy Christmas poems, A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer.

The photo above, courtesy of the Barker estate, is of S. Omar Barker and his wife Elsa. Read more about the poem here .

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Photo by Kork Cook, near Martin, South Dakota, December 22, 2009; Kork and Kiel,
sons of Nancy and Ken Cook, work the ranch that belonged to their great grandfather. 

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Contemporary: from the archives

    Popular poet, singer, and songwriter Dee Strickland Johnson ("Buckshot Dot") wrote about The Star and the Humble Cowboy. Her son Tim was the model for the scratch-board art that accompanies the poem.

The poem is from our archives. The illustration was a  Christmas Art Spur subject in 2007.

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Contemporary: from the archives

  Minnesota rancher, writer, songwriter, editor (of CowboyLegacy.org ) and poet Diane Tribitt's A Christmas Tale was inspired by Mick Harrison's "Christmas Tale" painting, a 2005 Christmas Art Spur.

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Contemporary: from the archives

  Colen Sweeten (1919-2007), a kind and gentle man missed by all who knew him, wrote many wonderful Christmas poems, including Christmas Beneath the Stars.

photo of Colen Sweeten by Jeri Dobrowski

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Frost at the ranch of Glen and Yvonne Hollenbeck
near Clearfield, South Dakota, December 22, 2009

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Contemporary: new

  Idaho rancher and poet Jack Goodman writes about Fixing Fence On Christmas Day.

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Contemporary: new

Idaho rancher and nurse Bobbie Hunter, who shares so many good gathering reports with the BAR-D throughout the year, tells of The Christmas at Winter Camp.

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  In Art Spur, we invite poets to let selections of Western art "spur" their poetry.

Our 2009 winter and Christmas Art Spur invited poems inspired by Tim Cox' painting, "Hicks' Hereford Heifers."

Selected poems have been posted:

  Michael Henley, Waitin' on a Stock Man
Aspen Black, Feeding on Christmas
Tom Nichols, Hereford Heifers

Posted 12/22:

Susan Matley, Growing Girls
Don Hilmer, The Right Kind
  Dale Page, Hicks' Hereford Heifers

Posted 12/23:

Cade Schalla, The Christmas Bawl
Joyce Johnson, Hicks' Hereford Heifers
Al Mehl, The Misfit

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