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A big holiday welcome from the BAR-D to you!
We keep Christmas every day during the season, with new poetry and more
each and every day in December.Along with our daily poetry additions, we post holiday news and features, below.
Our award-winning anthology, The Big Roundup, is the perfect gift for everyone on your list.
Preview The Big Roundup here.
There's more order info here."Here's a perfect holiday gift...."
Brooke Demetz Oklahoma Today"An entertaining and heartwarming collection of modern and classic
Cowboy Poetry. A wonderful treasury, including many of my favorites."
Don Edwards, America's favorite Cowboy singer"Cowboy poetry provides an important link to my own rural roots. The Big Roundup is a fine collection of cowboy poetry -- old and new."
The Honorable Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor, author of Lazy B"...a wonderful addition to our cowboy poetry collection..."
Randy Williams, Curator, Fife Folklore Archives"From the classics to contemporary, Cowboy Poetry is alive and represented well in The Big Roundup anthology. The 'Best of the West' section is a great information source for folks looking for a directory of events and places representing our Art Form."
Chris Isaacs, the Cowboy's Cowboy humorist and poet,
Rhymes, Reasons and Pack Saddle Proverbsand more praise here.....
The Big Roundup (the perfect gift!)
Below:
Poetry something new every day
Gift Ideas and Western Christmas Books and Music (separate page)
Poetry, Stories and More
Our 2004 Christmas Cowboy Poetry starts below
See a complete list of all the holiday poems from 2000-2004 here.
You can view the yearly collections of classic and modern Christmas Cowboy Poetry from previous years: 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000.
Our special holiday Art Spur piece offered to "spur" the imagination is "Seein' Santa," by Charles M. Russell, courtesy of the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana.
See the resulting poems here.
The C. M. Russell Museum's mission is "... to collect, preserve, research, and interpret the art and life of Charles M. Russell; the art and life of his contemporaries; and the art of preceding and ensuring generations that depict and focus on the culture, life, and country of Russell's West." Visit the C. M. Russell Museum web site where you can also read more about the life of Charles M. Russell.
"Seein' Santa" by Charles M. Russell, 1910, C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana
reproduced with permission
First Lariat Laureate Rod Nichols and Gene O'Quinn have collaborated on a wonderful new CD, Cowboy Christmas Mem'ries. The recording "invites the listener to travel back to a simpler time and observe Christmas with the Cowboy as written by Rod Nichols and read by Gene O'Quinn."
For more about the CD and a list of tracks, see Rod Nichols' page here or Gene O'Quinn's page here. Cowboy Christmas Mem'ries is available for $12.95 plus postage from Silver Creek Books and Music. See our review here.
Our review of Cowboy Christmas Mem'ries is featured during December at the Wyoming Companion.
See our page of Gift Ideas and Western Christmas Books and Music here.
Jo Hargrave
of Keepin'
in Cowboy sent the news: CMT is showing Christmas in Cowboy
Country again this year.
The show is scheduled to air:
Tuesday, November 30, 8 PM E/P
Wednesday, December 1, 12 AM E/P
Saturday, December 4, 6 PM E/P
Wednesday, December 8, 9 PM E/P
Thursday, December 9, 1 AM E/P
Saturday, December 11, 9 PM E/P
Sunday, December 19, 7:00 PM E/P
Monday, December 20, 10:00 PM E/P
(CMT lists times for the Eastern and Pacific broadcasts; check your local listings for other time zones)
The show includes a visit to the annual Keepin' it Cowboy Christmas show and, as described by the network: "CMT tips its hat to the holiday traditions of the American West, as Clint Black performs and hosts Christmas in Cowboy Country from the pristine splendor of the snowcapped Rocky Mountains. Unique stories of eclectic and interesting traditions are wrangled into one hour of holiday fare including dog sledding from Jackson, Wyo.; an Oklahoma City parade led by Texas longhorns; the light show from 37 Street in Austin, Texas; and a dude ranch celebration in Steamboat Springs, Colo."
CMT sent a film crew to Anadarko, Oklahoma to film the Annual Keepin' It Cowboy Christmas Show, which is featured in the final segment of Christmas in Cowboy Country. Jo's guests for the show included Lanny Joe Burnett, Chuck Milner, Tim Graham, Jay Snider, Hank Elling, J.W. Beeson, Janet McBride, and GinnyMac.
Jo says, "They have put up a message board on their website under Christmas in Cowboy Country to "test the waters" with cowboy entertainment and get comments from viewers...With enough positive comments, maybethey will be showing more 'cowboy' programming in the future." Read more about it and take part at the CMT web site.
Updated 12/3
Past Lariat Laureate
runner up Carl Condray
will be featured reciting two of his poems for Christmas, Winter
Stampede and Christmas
in the Scrub Oaks on Horsemen's
Radio Weekly with Jim Campbell. Visit the program's web
site to find a station near you and to listen to archives of past shows
(Carl was also featured on the Thanksgiving show, with his poem A
Wrangler's Thanksgiving. That was Show 300, about minute 42.0,
archived here. They
say,"...what would the holidays be without Carl Condray reciting 'A
Wrangler's Thanksgiving?'"). Carl's poems are scheduled to be featured on the
Christmas show, which could be the weekend of Christmas or the week before; each
station sets its own schedule.
Updated 12/2
Lincoln Rogers' story "Ho-Ho
Silver" is available at Echelon
Books. We've read the heartwarming Christmas story, and enjoyed
it.
Posted 12/2
Ken Overcast, cowboy singer/songwriter, poet, tale spinner, host of the
popular radio program The
Cowboy Show, and our occasional columnist with his Bear
Valley Tales, sent a great Christmas offer from his mercantile:
You can do all of your shopping right at www.KenOvercast.com and an order of only six items or more will result in no shipping charge at all. That's right! We'll waive the normal shipping and even send all six of them to different addresses with a little note from you if you'd like. Just call the office now at 888-753-7611 and the gals there will fix you right up. Thanks.
Ken's Montana Cowboy CD received the True West Best Cowboy CD award, he has a new video/DVD release of his most-requested Kamikaze Cow, and his Yesterday's Yarns is a book that can keep you warm even through a long Montana winter (read Jeff Streeby's review here.) Stop over at his web site for some one-stop shopping.
Posted 12/6
Past Lariat Laureate runner up
Hal
Swift's poem, Christmas
on the Trail, appears in the December, 2004 National edition of the Tombstone
Epitaph. Posted 12/7
Popular broadcaster Jim Thompson often
reads Cowboy Poetry and has poets as guests on his daily Live
With Jim Thompson! show. His Christmas Eve program will be full
of Christmas poetry. On December 23rd, they'll be "broadcasting from
the North Pole." You can listen live on the web,
from 1 PM - 3 PM Mountain, daily. You can participate by phone and email.
See our feature about the show here. Posted
12/11
The
Wyoming Companion.
has named ChristmasStories.com
as a Best of
the West Site, with particular attention to their Cowboy Poetry index.
There are nearly 200 Cowboy Christmas poems indexed at their site,
most of those being their favorites from the BAR-D Christmas collection.
In the Wyoming Companion Weekly Newsletter for December 15, 2004, they announce that news and also highlight Christmas at the BAR-D and their Christmas Cowboy Poetry features, which include our review of Cowboy Christmas Mem'ries, the new CD from first Lariat Laureate Rod Nichols and Gene O'Quinn.
The Wyoming Companion Weekly Newsletter is a free email publication from The Wyoming Companion. Visit their site to subscribe, and to enjoy their Cowboy Poetry Gathering section. Posted 12/16
Our Honored Guest Dee Strickland Johnson ("Buckshot
Dot") has a touching Christmas story of childhood memories, "Christmas
on the Hualapai Reservation - 1930s" at her web site, as well as a moving
Christmas poem, "The
Flickering Candle."
Posted 12/16
Honored Guest Yvonne Hollenbeck's
Christmas poem, "The Perfect Gift," is featured here on Janie
Breck's web site. Janie says, "Tenderly dusted throughout these pages you
will find bits and pieces of my heart and soul... I hope you find something
here that will brighten your day, bring a smile to your lips and
allow you to leave with joy in your heart."
Posted 12/17
Past
Lariat Laureate runner up Nona Kelley Carver's
moving poem, "A Soldier's Christmas," is featured at the San
Juan Silver Stage On Line site. The San Juan Silver Stage
Online "covers arts, entertainment, activities and travel throughout
Western Colorado and the Four Corners" and is updated daily. Posted
12/30
And there's plenty other Cowboy Poetry news
in our News Since the Last Newsletter
Visit our Pards
Over at SilverCreek Books and Music there's a real Christmas celebration going on, with new Cowboy Christmas books and Cowboy Music available every day at special prices at SilverCreek Book & Music's "A Cowboy Christmas," 2004 Edition.
This year they are also featuring stories about Christmas from poets, musicians, and other friends, including Hal Swift, Jane Morton, Gary Crum, Scott Hill Bumgardner, Rusty Calhoun, and Donna Hatton -- and even one from the BAR-D.
Ride on over to the SilverCreek Book & Music's "A Cowboy Christmas," 2004 Edition and shop and celebrate with some of the nicest folks in the West.
A modern holiday classic and something that's become a part of many readers' tradition is a visit to first Lariat Laureate Rod Nichols' dazzling presentation of his poem, "Christmas Comes to Line Camp," at his great web site right here in a special "web book" with music and entrancing graphics.
The fine folks at ChristmasStories.com have indexed nearly 200 of their favorites from the BAR-D Christmas collection. You can see their index right here.
See our calendar for Cowboy Poetry Events.
See Voleta Hummel's Cowboy and Western Music Events Calendar, which we're pleased to host right here at the BAR-D. It's sponsored by Rope Burns, Your Source for Western Music, and Western Skies Publicists & Photography
Visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum web site for information about their Holiday Events.
Live With Jim Thompson! is on the air daily, and Jim often reads Cowboy Poetry and has poets as guests. His Christmas Eve program was full of Christmas poetry. On December 23rd, they were "broadcasting from the North Pole." You can listen live on the web, from 1 PM - 3 PM Mountain, daily. You can participate by phone and email. See our feature about the show here.
Daily Treats!
Something
every day, along with selected classic and
contemporary favorites from past years' celebrations
December 2004
1st First Lariat Laureate Rod Nichols gets things started off with A Christmas Journey and with an Art Spur entry, Seein' Santa. And once again this year, we are pleased to share a true modern classic, a BAR-D favorite, Christmas Waltz by Buck Ramsey.
2nd Past Lariat Laureate LaVonne Houlton shares The Christmas Miracle. Past Lariat Laureate runner up Hal Swift has an Art Spur entry, First One to Daylight. And we bring back an old favorite of ours from Past Lariat Laureate Jay Snider, Santa's Helper.
3rd Honored guest Georgie Sicking shares The Spirit of Christmas. Past Lariat Laureate Jo Lynne Kirkwood has an Art Spur entry, a sonnet called Visitation. And we have an old favorite classic, The Christmas Trail, by Badger Clark.
4th Lariat Laureate runner up Paul Kern shares My Blue-Eyed Bay. And we have a BAR-D favorite from a Christmas past by Honored Guest Yvonne Hollenbeck, All American Christmas.
5th An Advent Sunday seems just right for past Lariat Laureate runner up Gail T. Burton's How Far is it to Bethlehem and a well-loved classic by S. Omar Barker, A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer.
'
6th Lincoln Rogers shares December's Trail Home and Lariat Laureate runner up Michael Henley follows The Guthrie Christmas Trail in an Art Spur entry. And we have one of our old classic Cowboy Poetry favorites, The Old Time Christmas by Bruce Kiskaddon.
7th Past Lariat Laureate Jane Morton shares Seein' Santa in an Art Spur entry. Ken Overcast has a Christmas story, Givin' a Little Back.
8th Our Honoured Guest Mike Puhallo has a Christmas Meadow Muffin, Running in the Team, and we bring back an old favorite, A Christmas Prayer, from Mike's compatriot and our Honoured Guest, Doris Daley.
9th Dave P. Fisher shares Seein' Santa in an Art Spur entry; we have a new classic addition by Eugene Field with a "touch of cowboy" that Bob Whitaker brought to our attention, Jest 'Fore Christmas; and Country Christmas, an old favorite from a past Christmas celebration by past Lariat Laureate Sam Jackson.
10th Our Honored Guest Chuck Larsen shares The Perfect Tree. And from past Christmas celebrations, we have Bruce Kiskaddon's classic, The Cowboys Christmas Dance and an old favorite of ours, A Christmas Poem, by Charley Sierra.
11th Jan Erickson shares Uncle Charlie's Christmas Eve in an Art Spur entry. And with dancing still on our minds, we have two favorites on that subject from past BAR-D Christmas celebrations: Winter Stampede by past Lariat Laureate runner up Carl Condray and a classic, The Cowboy's Christmas Ball, by William Lawrence "Larry" Chittenden.
12th The Third Sunday in Advent seems the right day to share our occasional columnist Ken Overcast's poem, A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer, and for a favorite from a past Christmas at the BAR-D, Sermon on the Mount, by our Honored Guest Virginia Bennett.
13th Our Honored Guest Don Kennington shares his poem, Preparation; we have Lariat Laureate runner up Janice Gilbertson's Seein' Is Believin', an Art Spur entry; and an old favorite of ours, Jim Quarternight's Gift by our Honored Guest Dennis Gaines.
14th Past Lariat Laureate Jo Lynne Kirkwood shares Cowboys and Christmas; we have Rusty Salmon's poem, Never Too Late, an Art Spur entry; and a favorite from an earlier BAR-D Christmas celebration, Cowboy Christmas Ball, by past Lariat Laureate runner up Francine Roark Robison.
15th Lariat Laureate runner up Jim John shares A Cowboy Holiday Wish; we have Clark Crouch's poem, Santa's Brand, an Art Spur entry; and a favorite from a Christmas past, Desert Cowboy's Christmas by Honored Guest Carole Jarvis.
16th We have a favorite from a past year's celebration, A Charlie Creek Christmas, by our Honored Guest DW Groethe; an Art Spur entry, A Stormy Christmas Eve, from Lariat Laureate runner up Joyce Johnson; Tom King shares his Pedro's Christmas Tree (at Tom's web site, you can see the accompanying Eldon Walls cartoon and a message about Ellen King, who stays in everyone's thoughts and prayers); and we have Tex Tumbleweed's poem, On the Border.
17th Past Lariat Laureate Jay Snider shares Never Shop on Christmas Eve; we have A Cowboy Christmas from Rich Roach; and Bruce Satta has an Art Spur entry, Temperance.
18th We have an old favorite from our Honored Guest Pat "coal-in-his-stocking" Richardson, called Christmas Cheer; Leroy Watts shares A Cowboy Christmas Gathering; we have Joe Kunkel's One Saturday in December; and Harold Roy Miller has an Art Spur entry, Christmas Night Ride.
19th We mark the fourth Advent Sunday with two favorites from years past, In a Manger by Honored Guest Colen Sweeten and A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer by past Lariat Laureate runner up Gail T. Burton; we have Honoured Guest Mike Puhallo's What's It All About Charlie Brown; we have A Rancher's Christmas from past Lariat Laureate runner up Sam DeLeeuw; Jan Erickson shares his A Day in December; and we have Diamond Doug Keith's poem, Remember Christmas.
20th Past Lariat Laureate Jane Morton shares Christmas Love; Glen Enloe has an Art Spur entry, Christmas in a Bottle; and we have an old favorite from Omar West, Anna Claus.
21st The Christmas Tree, a classic by Bruce Kiskaddon starts us off; Honored Guest Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns shares The Reason for Dead Deer and Grampaw's Elf; we have past Lariat Laureate runner up Hal Swift's poem, The Language of Christmas; we have A Prairie Christmas from Clark Crouch; and Cowboy Christmas Carol from David Althouse.
22nd Honored Guest Jeff Streeby shares The Ghost of Christmas Past; we have Christmas Conversion from George Bourbeau; we have The Ballad of Big Nick from Dennis Higgins; Somethin' in the Air from Bruce Satta; Little Pot-bellied Stove from Doug Brewer; and The Red Calico Cowboy Santa Claus of Concho County from Glen Enloe.
23rd We have Christmas Week in Sagebrush, a classic by E. A. Brininstool; Alf Bilton of Whitehorse, Yukon shares The Freight Musher's Tale and his illustration; and we have The Christmas Story, a favorite from a Christmas past by Honored Guest Linda Kirkpatrick.
24th We leave you with Special Western Music Guest Curly Musgrave's Prairie Silent Night, and two of our favorites from years past: The Star and a Humble Cowboy by Honored Guest Dee Strickland Johnson ("Buckshot Dot") and Christmas Serenade by J. W. Beeson.
Merry Christmas All!
See a list of all the BAR-D New Year poems from 2000-2004 here.
Honored Guest Mike Puhallo shares his New Year wishes for all in a new Meadow Muffin, A New Day. You can read a fresh Meadow Muffin from Mike every week over at the BCCHS Cowboy Poets' page and at Cowboylife.com.
Drink Deep
Never twice in the world you find,
A lad whose heart is the gold you spend,
And his free hand of your heart, in kind,
When the joy of each is to give, not lend:
Yes one shall tarry and one shall sleep,
So while you stand in the sun, drink deep.Soon, too soon shall the sunlight pass,
And one shall mourn in the starless night,
As he snaps the stem of an empty glass,
That brimmed of old with a brave delight:
And one of you twain must the vigil keep,
So while you stand in the sun, drink deep.by Henry Herbert Knibbs, from Saddle Songs and Other Verse, 1922
With special remembrance of Ty, Cameo Dooley, Charlie Hunt, Howard Parker,
Lee Earl, Frank Galbraith, Layne Kimmick, Glenn D. Vaagen, Richard Swift
and all who left us this year...
See the links above for holiday news and more; our regular News Since the Last Newsletter is here.
See a complete list of all the holiday poems from 2000-2004 here.
See all the holiday poems from 2003 right here.
See all the holiday poems from 2002 right here.
See the Countdown to 2002 New Year poems here.
See all the holiday poems from 2001 right here.
See all the holiday poems from 2000 right here.
See the list of all the poems at the BAR-D here.
Authors retain copyright to
their work; obtain an author's
permission before using a poem in any form.
CowboyPoetry.com is a project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, Inc., a Federal and California tax-exempt non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.
