In 1994, there were more than 150 cowboy poetry festivals around the country, along with an outcrop of magazines, CD's and books featuring cowboy verse. Zarzyski rode bareback broncs for 12 years, during which time he also studied poetry at the University of Montana. He resents it when critics label academic poetry as fine art and cowboy poetry as folk art. Louis Sampson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1964, disagrees. Ben Jonson said, 'A rhymer and a poet are two things,' and it's still true.
Poetry is a spiritual thing, it has to appeal to the intellect, and it's an art.
Robert Haas, who teaches American Poetry at Berkeley, went to a cowboy poetry reading in Wyoming. Haas compares the poems he heard to the popular newspaper poems of the 19th century. I guess you could say that modernism took poetry away from ordinary people, and cowboy poetry is one way of taking it back. It's right down there with mime. On the last day of the festival, there are 35 poetry readings, two concerts and, topping off the week, like icing on a cake, the Ian Tyson dance.