MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
April is National Poetry Month. It's also calving season, you know, when cows give birth to their babies. Apparently, someone here has an unfulfilled yearning for ranch life - no shade. But because of that, we're going to spotlight poetry that focuses on wide open spaces.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
That's right, cowboy poetry.
YVONNE HOLLENBECK: I call it a celebration of the history of the West, both past and present.
MARTÍNEZ: Yvonne Hollenbeck is known as a cowgirl poet. Unlike us, she lives on a ranch in South Dakota. And in 50 years of ranch life, she's found inspiration in its daily rhythms.
HOLLENBECK: (Reading) He can see if the windmill is working or not from his horse on a faraway hill and see which direction the wind's coming from by watching the tail on the mill. He's got eyes like an eagle for spotting new calves that the mamas have hidden all snug. So why can't he see the mud on his boots that he's tracking all over my rug?
MARTIN: Good question.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
MARTIN: Hollenbeck's "Old Eagle Eye" gives us a sense of two trademarks of cowboy poetry - rhyme and punchline.
MARTÍNEZ: J.B. Barber is another poet who salutes life in the saddle. He's president of the Cowboy Poets of Idaho.
J B BARBER: I was a rodeo cowboy. I did rough stock riding and got too old and too banged up. I became a roper, team roper. And then when I got too more banged up, I just laid down my rope and saddle and picked up my guitar, and I started doing cowboy poetry in the '90s.
MARTIN: Sung or spoken, Barber says cowboy poetry is something like sharing tales around the campfire. His poem, "The Big Sale," takes us to a horse auction.
BARBER: (Reading) The auctioneer's face turned beet red. Steamed mist (ph) coming out of both ears. And he started into screaming. Cowboy, a horse hadn't sold for that much around here in years. But that crazy owner walked into the saleroom where his horse stood. He looked up at that auctioneer and said, but I didn't know I owned a horse this good.
MARTIN: And if you've been with us for a while, I hope you remember a late friend of this programs - Baxter Black.
MARTÍNEZ: Baxter gave his poetry to MORNING EDITION for 20 years, and he could find fun in everything from feedlots to horseshoes to cow socks.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
BAXTER BLACK: (Reading) Cows have an IQ somewhere between a cedar post and a sandhill crane. However, fate has made the cow and cowboy dependent on each other - this same unnatural relationship that exists between politicians and reporters or lawyers and criminals.
MARTÍNEZ: As his family put it, Baxter rode his old horse home in 2022. His last poem in cowboy poet fashion notes that heaven for a cowboy is just what you might expect, with horses that need tuning up and heifers that need to be checked.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATT COMBS AND TEDDY MORGAN'S "WINDS FOREVER BLOW") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.