Cowboy Poetry Matters: From Abilene to the Mainstream: Contemporary Cowboy Writing
The poets in McDowell's anthology take up one challenge set forth in Dana Gioia's renowned 1991 essay, "Can Poetry Matter?" --to re-engage with the world of work. These are poems about labor by poets who, even if they don't now ranch or farm, know plenty about working horses. Most know cattle raising, though they don't write much in its lingo. Certainly cultural nostalgia for the Wild West hooks us into reading the poems, but nostalgia and the rugged individualism with which cowboys are thoughtlessly encumbered aren't their stock-in-trade. Instead, the qualities that predominate are hard, painful work; the fellowship of those, including the horses, who do it; and the stunning beauties and otherness of the natural world in which it is done. Yes, many poems are sentimental, but they don't all rhyme or trip along in ballad meters, and many of the best are by women, especially Linda M. Hasslestrom, Linda Hussa, and Linda McCarriston. The accompanying memoirs by Hussa and Wallace McRae are also outstanding, and the critical essays that round out the book aren't bad, either.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved