There’s far fewer ranches than there use’ta be,
But that sure don’t mean that there’s less poetry.
In fact, it’s real true cowboy poets abound,
And there’s more of them now than was ever around.

Yep, that’s cowboy poetry... loose, rhythmic doggerel that’s spawning more and more local festivals yearly across Western Canada. Cowboy poetry grew out of campfire tale-telling during cattle drives and on ranches, but you don't have to be a cowboy to write the stuff—or listen to it. You just have to love the romance of the cowboy’s world.

And all summer ‘round Canada’s West—Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan—small towns host the travelling circuit of cowboy poets with their books, cassette tapes and now DVDs. The best known and one of the longest running, the Maple Creek Cowboy Poetry Gathering and Western Art & Gear Show, celebrates 20 years at its mid September 2009 gathering in Maple Creek, SK. In Ponoka, AB, the second annual local festival gathered in late April 2009.

At these gatherings, poets—ranging from long-time-transplanted-to-Alberta-from-Nova-Scotia Ol’ Ugly to Dave (Grumpy) Dance, a British-Columbia-born ranch hand—take turns settling onto high stools in local Legion halls or curling rinks. They hitch up giant monogrammed, shiny silver belt buckles, and start in recitin’ to crowds who come from as far as two provinces away to listen, sip coffee from Styrofoam cups, eat local-made “dainties” (cookies) and attend the big beefsteak dinners that wind up the one-, two- or three-day events.

And as long as they love it with all of their heart.
They will all be cowboys, til death does them part.