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Article: Cowboy Poetry Becomes 'An American Phenomenon
- Article from:
- Yakima Herald-Republic
- Article date:
- March 4, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 Yakima Herald-Republic. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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By Ren Featherstone
voices Correspondent
LKO, Nev. -- When Centerville, Wash., folklore poet Mary Jean
Risheim flew to northern Nevada to perform at the annual National
Cowboy Gathering in January, she observed in Elko a town gone wild
over verse.
More than 60 bards of the range from across the West -- and
countries including Australia and Mongolia -- enchanted more than
8,000 visitors with rhyme and cadence. The performers cast their
spell with the imagery of cow camps and cattle drives, dogs and
horses and rattle-trap pickups, mountain beauty and desert solace.
Always, the horseman or ranch woman was central to a landscape of
feelings sad, humble, boisterous, funny and bittersweet.
"It's ...