Cowboy Poetry Week in Prescott,
Washington!
What, you’ve never heard of Prescott,
Washington?
We’re just north of Walla Walla, just east of the Tri
Cities, just west of Lewiston, Idaho. The scenery
around here today is wheat, wheat and more wheat, but
Prescott was first settled as cattle country in the
late 1850s due to the abundance of bunch grass. Just a
few miles north the rolling hills grow craggy and our
neighbors in nearby Starbuck are serious cattle
ranchers.
This is Prescott’s third year of
Cowboy Poetry Week celebration, and Bruce and I (aka
Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue) were honored by an
invitation of Prescott School District Superintendent
Dr. Carolyn Marsh to perform at an assembly for the
entire K-through-12 student body. Students and staff
packed the gymnasium bleachers for a forty-minute
presentation of classic cowboy poetry (set to music)
and a discussion of its origins. Bruce’s rendition of
the "Bad Brahma Bull" was especially appreciated by
the students, many of whom have attended the Walla
Walla Fair & Frontier Days rodeo. The third grade
class (all 19 of them) stood in line to shake our
hands afterwards; they were especially excited about
the program as they’d studied the Great Trail Drives
earlier this year, including some age-appropriate
cowboy vocabulary.
That evening the Prescott Library
and Prescott Friends of the Library sponsored a cowboy
poetry event for the general public. According to
Prescott Library Manager Josh Westbrook, “Our annual
cowboy poetry event continues to be a great community
draw and attendance increased again this year. Cimarron
Sue and Nevada Slim,
Jessica Hedges,
and
Robin Dale
entertained a crowd of forty people at our event.
We're aiming for fifty next year!” Not bad for a town
of three hundred!
Bruce and I opened with musical
renditions of Gail Gardner’s “The Sierry Petes (or
Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail)” and “Border Affair”
by Charles Badger Clark. Next up was Nevada-born poet
Jessica Hedges (now from Coulee City, Washington). She
debuted a new poem “Cowgirl Craze” and explored the
hardships of being a ranch wife with “Listening For
His Cinch Bell.” “Red Ridin’” Robin Dale charmed the
audience with her renditions of songs made popular by
Patsy Montana. Robin has one heck of a yodel and
taught the audience “how to” in a sing-along.
Librarian Josh Westbrook
announced the winners of the Prescott Library cowboy
poetry contest:
Sonya
Crispin (4th Grade) "Klyde"
Samantha Delgado (10th
Grade)"Cowboy"
Both girls were invited to read
their poems.
The program then opened up for
participation from the audience. Friends of the
Library officer Patsy Adams shared a poem from
Prescott’s historic past. Doctor Ernest E. Hardy was
Prescott’s community doctor for 36 years, starting in
1924. He also operated the drug store and penned poems
for friends on special occasions. Ms. Adams read a
poem Dr. Hardy had written for her father in 1949, as
a thank you for taking him to the Pacific
International Livestock Show in Portland, Oregon.
Local author Martin McCaw had the
audience in stitches with his tale "The Equinophobic
Bronc Rider" featuring the exploits of hero Burly Bold
(who was neither). Martin could certainly hold his own
in a “tall tales” contest in both content and
delivery, and I hope he’ll be a permanent fixture at
future gatherings. He recently joined the Western
Music Association, and along with Bruce, Robin,
Jessica and me is a member of the newly formed
Columbia Chapter (Washington, Oregon and British
Columbia).
We closed the program with a
community sing. Thanks to the Friends of the Library,
plenty of homemade cookies were available as friends
and neighbors visited after the show. We’re already
laying plans for the 2011 celebration, and I hope to
work with librarian Josh Westbrook on organizing some
interim events to keep cowboy poetry in the public’s
mind.
I
Poet and teacher
