Buckshot Dot - Dee Strickland Johnson

        Buckshot Dot has been featured at Cowboy Poets Gatherings and concerts in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nebraska and Texas. In addition, she has appeared in concert and sessions in Alabama, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and British Columbia; and she opened for Lyle Lovett. She was the Academy of Western Artists' 1997 Female Cowboy Poet of the Year, a finalist for that award in 1998 and for video of the year in 1999. She paints a beautiful picture with words. Dee, in her poem "Winds Of The West", has painted the color of the wind. Her imagery, alliteration and internal rhymes are the product of a poet to remember. She is also an artist literally; and her art is featured on the bottom of this web page.

WINDS OF THE WEST

Wind, wind, winds of the west,
Vague voices call from the land I love best.
Sighing and crying and hauntingly free,
Incessantly whistling and whisp'ring to me.

No matter how far or how often I roam --
O'er vast verdant fields or the dark ocean's foam,
I'll never find freedom; I'll never find rest,
While the wild wind is wantonly willing me west.

The warm winds of summer are singing to me.
The breezes blow fresh'ning and fragrant and free;
And no matter where or how far I may be,
The winds of the west will keep calling to me.

Wind, wind, wild western wind,
Haunting me, wanting me westward again.
Taunting, undaunting, wherever I roam --
Exciting, delighting, inviting me home.

Echoes of voices that sang long ago
Still willing me westward, calling me home.
Sun, sand, and sagebrush, saguaro and pine,
Cottonwood, piñon; the west is all mine.

The wild winds of winter wail warning to me:
"You must come back home!" It's a great mystery
From where canyons cut deep
and the wastelands are wide,
The winds of the west never seem to subside.

Photo of man in boxcar.

Wind, wind, wild western winds
Summon me back to the saddle again.
No matter where or how far I may be,
The winds of the west will keep calling to me.
The wind of the west wails,
"Come home! Home to me!"

Boxcar drawing by Charles M.Russell

"Buckshot Dot"- Dee Strickland Johnson
copyright©1998

Note: The sketch of the man on the boxcar is by Charles M. Russell.

"Buckshot Dot" - Dee Strickland Johnson is a multi-talented individual who is not only an excellent cowboy poet...she is an artist as well. Here are some of Dee's sketches:

Dee is a native Arizonan who grew up on the Navajo and Hualapai Indian reservations, in Flagstaff and at Petrified Forest National Monument. She and her husband John ("Ol Buck") had a ranch in the Arkansas Ozarks in the 1970's and now make their home at Payson, AZ. Writing, music, and art have been life long pastimes for Dee and her love of western history is intertwined with all of these.

She is the author of "Arizona Herstory, Tales From Her Storied Past", published and produced by Cowboy Miner Productions. In addition she has two other books; and all three are illustrated with her art. She has used the lyrics of poetic imagery to relate the exciting, and often, little known accounts from Arizona's past. She skillfully blends history and the beauty of poetry to create a fascinating new look at Arizona's rich and varied history. Her book was awarded the Will Rogers Medallion.

In recognition of her efforts on behalf of Arizona, Dee was named an Arizona Culture Keeper in 2004 by the Arizona Historical Foundation.