PRESCOTT, Ariz. — On the ranch, cowboys work their cattle and horses. Put them on a stage, and they sing and put to verse the lifestyle they so cherish.
This year, the 24th annual Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering will bring 55 of them to Yavapai College for two daylong performances on Friday and Saturday. Bill Snow Jr. and Eli Barsi will appear in the Yavapai College Performance Hall on Friday, and the renowned Desert Sons will entertain Saturday, also in the Performance Hall.
Cowboy poet Sally Bates of Chino Valley was raised on a ranch and has worked on them most of her life, from the time of her birth in Prescott 64 years ago.
"I write what I know about," she said. "Everything I write is from a personal perspective — everyday life poetry. I have been writing since I was 9 years old."
"I Sold My Saddle" is one of her poems that speaks of her personal experience that she put into the perspective of old cowboys who have to give up riding.
Bates herself can't ride anymore because of an injury sustained when she got bucked off her horse. But, rather than write about herself, she penned a poem that is "more about old men who get too old to ride. I know how they must feel after spending their whole life on horseback and can't get on anymore."
Both Bates and cowboy songwriter Gail Steiger, who will also be among the poets and songsters performing at the gathering, look back to days of yore when the tradition to sing cowboy songs and recite poetry in small gatherings of friends and family began.
"We didn't have TV," Bates said. "We listened to the radio at night if the generator was on."
Steiger, who has managed the Spider Ranch west of Prescott since 1995, grew up with a grandfather, Gail Gardner, who is legendary for his cowboy poems, notable among them, "Tyin' Knots in the Devil's Tail."
"He and his friends entertained each other" by telling stories and singing songs, he said. "They did not sit in front of a TV. It was a time when people were more involved in entertaining themselves."
Steiger tells stories in ballads, such as "John and Charlie," inspired by the Matli brothers, longtime Yavapai County ranchers, and "Whistle," a song about a horse of that name, with a theme contrasting owning one's own ranch with working for someone else.
Steiger refutes the "stereotypical idea that cowboy life is dying or disappearing." ''I don't think that's true," he said, noting he thinks there are as many cattle in Yavapai County as ever.
It is the camaraderie within the livestock industry that Bates appreciates, and this is the catalyst for the Cowboy Poets Gathering, she said. This bond continues to unite cowboy poets, who will celebrate their 25th annual event in Prescott next year.
Bates writes "whenever I get a one-liner or a bright idea."
Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com