A hundred years ago, reciting cowboy poetry was a lot more widespread than it is today. . The cowboys of a century ago were by no means exclusively a bunch of home-grown illiterates. The lure of the West brought a lot of English "educated fellers" who  for one reason or another gravitated to the ranches and cow camps. Quite a few of these folks recited - and wrote - poetry. And beginning in the 1880's and '90's, a whole school of poetry of the out-of-doors was being published by such men as Rudyard Kipling in England and Robert Service in North America.  The new poems of the outdoors were getting published and read, and  educated people became interested in writing their own contributions to this genre, based on Western life.  

         Some, like D. J. O'Malley and Curley Fletcher, lived out their lives as cowboys. ( Both have cowboy poems and bios  featured on The Range Writers.)  Other writers  had a college education, like Gail Gardner, who went home to Prescott with his Dartmouth Degree and started running a "greasy sack" outfit in the nearby mountains. Or like John Grafton Rogers, Dean of the University of Colorado Law School, who wrote "Longside The Santa Fe Trail" in 1911. Badger Clark, author of  the well known cowboy poetry - "High Chin Bob" and "The Cowboy's Prayer", was in Arizona for his health. Jack Thorp came out West from New York City, where his father had been a successful lawyer. A pretty wide range of backgrounds, to be sure… but all these folks spent some time living the simple life they wrote about in their cowboy poetry. 

                 The West is still full of men and women  who write and recite poems about their world; and there are three contemporary poems/poets/legends  generally considered to be "classic" already: poem - REINCARNATION by Wally McRae; poet - Baxter Black; and legend - The epoch cattle drive of Edna Zigenbine. Edna Zigenbine Jessop recently passed away (October   , 2007).  How many cowboys are there still living who have conducted a cattle drive of around 1000 miles? There aren't likely any left in the United States.  Above is the picture of the pretty girl who did exactly that when she was in her very early twenties. She    did it over some of the most forbidding territory in Australia...it took her around six months to do it.....and she did it alone as theboss driver, with only the assistance of native Aboriginals and her young brother, Andy, who served as the camp cook.   The story of Edna Zigenbine Jessop (1926 - 2007) is a  legend with few equals...and not just of the outback but of the cattle industry worldwide. Hers is a story of valor and mettle; and an account of one of the most remarkable cattle drives of all time. Her exploits were heralded in newspapers across the world.   "Marathon Runner", a poem in memory of Edna Zigenbine Jessop, is just a click away:
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                                               CONTEMPORARY POETS