News Since the Last Newsletter Cowboy Poetry at the BAR-D Ranch www.CowboyPoetry.com

Congratulations to Dee and John Johnson, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this month. Dee (aka Dee Strickland Johnson and "Buckshot Dot") and John are celebrating a "lifetime of loving, sharing, and caring."
Dee is a poet, writer, and songwriter. Read more about her and find some of her work here and at www.buckshotdot.com.

Posted 8/31

Popular Wyoming poet, writer, emcee and radio co-host Andy Nelson won a place on November's General Election ballot for County Commissioner in Sublette County as a result of the Wyoming Primary Election held August 17, 2010. The four-year term has two seats open, and Andy was the second-highest vote-getter in a field of seven candidates.

Andy Nelson is a frequent performer and emcee at Western events, and he and his brother Jim co-host the weekly syndicated Clear Out West (C.O.W.) radio show, which you can listen to on demand on the internet.

Read more about Andy in our feature here. Visit his web site for more: www.cowpokepoet.com.

[photo by Jeri L. Dobrowski; see her gallery of western performers and others here.]

Posted 8/10

Gary Allegretto has a wonderful video about his recent Harmonikids mission to Haiti. It is described:

In May 2010, professional musician Gary Allegretto took his nonprofit organization Harmonikids on a music therapy mission to aid children in Port Au Prince, Haiti who survived the earthquake, as well as some shockingly trapped in "Restavek" (Creole for child slavery). Allegretto partnered with the Restevek Foundation and Hohner Inc. who donated 1000 harmonicas for the cause. Award-winning film maker Marc Lempert filmed this video for Harmonikids.

In addition to his renowned and Grammy-considered work as a musician, since 1985 Allegretto has been actively using harmonicas to provide the therapeutic healing power of music to kids with incredible physical and emotional challenges. His widespread missions have also included those traumatized by such natural disasters as the tsunami in Indonesia and Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana.

See the video here.

In June, Gary he shared the following information:

Gary Allegretto's Harmonikids recently provided music therapy to Haitian children who are not only earthquake survivors, but many who were also victims of domestic child slavery and extreme poverty. To share this extraordinary mission, with its uplifting stories, photos, testimonials and more, please click here (pdf file).

Harmonikids "is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing harmonicas & the joy of music to special needs children. The program gives harmonicas to children with a wide range of physical or emotional disadvantages and teaches them to play simple songs through easy instruction and gentle encouragement. Harmonikids' goal is to provide a fun, interactively educational, and entertaining diversion for kids who have tremendous emotional and physical challenges."

Gary Allegretto is a popular performer at Western events and beyond. Find more about him at http://www.myspace.com/harmonicowboy.

Updated 8/18

Videographers Chris and Jon, the twin grandsons of Jane Morton and Dick Morton, have won a unanimous "Making a Difference" award for their excellent recent video, which you can view here.

In the film, Chris tells about being diagnosed with cancer at age four and his aspirations today to help others as he studies to become a surgeon. He talks about his mother's cancer and his grandfather's (Dick Morton) battle with leukemia.

Chris and Jon are also students and musicians, who record as "Simply Spoons." They have a YouTube channel and a FaceBook page.

Posted 8/16

On July 31, 2010, nine-year old poet, songwriter, singer and yodeler Cora Wood was named Wyoming's 2010 Carbon County Fair and Rodeo Princess (in the 8-11 year old category—there is also a Junior Queen and a Queen).
Cora is also featured in a recent special Western Horseman video presentation, "Cowgirl Songs & Stories," created by Senior Editor Jennifer Denison.

Cora Wood made her first invited appearance at the the Western Folklife Center's 26th Annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada in January, 2010. One session was captured in a video, "Carry it Forward," at YouTube featuring Cora and other young performers Adrian and Brigid Reedy, along with Wylie Gustafson of Wylie & the Wild West, Liz Masterson, John Reedy, and Laurie Wood.

Find some photos of Cora working cows here in Picture the West. Cora's recent CD is Cora's Cowgirl Yodel. The CD includes seven songs (including the title cut, which Cora co-wrote with Paul Harris) and three poems. See the entire track list here.

Read some of Cora's poems and more about her here at the BAR-D and visit her web site, www.woodwesternmusic.com, which includes audio and video clips.

Posted 8/4

Jessica Brandi Lifland (www.jessicalifland.com), the official photographer for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, is headed to the Dominican Republic on an Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org) assignment, and then to Haiti for freelance photojournalism work. Operation Smile is a children's charity treating facial deformities such as cleft lips and cleft palates all around the world. She has previously traveled to Jordan, Palestine, and Senegal for Operation Smile.

Based in San Francisco, Jessica Brandi Lifland has worked as a photojournalist "all over the United States and internationally in such places as Kosovo, Burma, Italy and most recently Jordan and Palestine. Her work appears nationally and internationally in publications including The New York Times, USA Today, The Toronto Star, Newsweek, Time, Forbes and Le Monde...."

Jessica Lifland has been working on a project documenting the lives of cowboy poets. Read more here and see some of her images at her web site and visit her photoblog.

UPDATE 7/22

Jessica Lifland's photos from Haiti were published in a July 12, 2010 story in USA Today, "Six months after Haitian quake, many barriers to recovery," both in an article and in an accompanying slide show.

See her photoblog for additional photos and commentary.

[photograph of Jessica Lifland by Vasna Wilson]

Updated 7/22

Popular cowboy poet and songwriter Al "Doc" Mehl returned recently from Ghana, Africa where he was participating in a medical mission sponsored by "Alliance for Smiles" and by the Rotary Club. He writes:

The team provided surgery for patients with cleft lip and cleft palate, a total of 77 patients with ages ranging from 6 months old to 40 years old. I was involved with pre-operative evaluations and with post-operative care, with all of our patients spending a night or two in a medical tent in the hospital courtyard that we had fashioned into a post-op ward.

Here are some links:

Check out this YouTube slide show of the trip. In addition to some dramatic before-and-after photography of our patients, you will get some idea of what our surgical team was doing, and the environment in which we triaged patients and provided post-operative care.

Also, you can see photos of the trip at two different Facebook pages, available for viewing even if you aren't a Facebook member: The medical mission and a photo album of the faces and places in and around Accra, Ghana.

Doc adds, "...as it turns out I was actually on a cowboy poetry mission as well. Every evening after our dinner at the hotel in Accra, Ghana, I would perform a cowboy poem for the 24 members of our team, a run of about 14 consecutive evenings and 14 consecutive cowboy poems. I'm willing to venture that it could very well be the first time that cowboy poetry has ever been performed in Ghana."

UPDATE 8/11/10

Doc shared a poem and photos from his experience:

The Peds Tent

I’d been workin’ in the Peds Tent with my partner Mary Lou;

We had made it through the first week, and were startin’ out week two.

All our patients were respectful, all were calm, and all coop’rative,

Unusual, consid’rin every patient was post-op’rative.

See, we’d traveled with a team of surgeons, staff, and anesthesure,

Each had volunteered to give up ’bout two weeks of their own leisure,

Volunteered to paint a picture from a plastic surg’ry palate,

And repair the facial defects known as “cleft of lip and palate.”

Volunteered to give their time so others might have surgery,

With the whole endeavor sponsored by the Clubs of Rotary.

We’d all signed on with a “Smile Alliance,” known as “A.F.S.,”

And when asked to come to Ghana, we’d all willingly said “Yes!”

And Ridge Hospital was kind enough to host the surgery,

And the project had been funded so that all the care was free.

Still, we’d come prepared for difficulties, come already knowin’

That the pediatrics wards were filled with kids, and overflowin’.

So we made do with a tent, each post-op patient spent the night.

Every morning, we’d be rounding, making sure the wounds healed right.

And the parents, they were grateful, and their children never whined,

And although the tent felt primitive, nobody seemed to mind.

We’d prepared each child for discharge on that day, except a few ones,

And our nurses changed the beddings as we braced to get some new ones,

When a man in coat and tie approached the tent that steamy day,

And with clipboard in his hands, these were the words we heard him say:

“In the U.S., you’ve got OSHA, that inspection agency;

Here in Ghana, we’ve the same thing, and it’s called A.E.S.C.

I’m inspector for this region, and I’m here to ask you, please,

To respond to my concerns about ‘irregularities.’

“I’ve been told you’ve turned this tent into a pediatrics ward.

Quite irregular!” he bellowed. Then he caught his breath and roared:

“This wood subfloor is uneven, just loose boards without no nails.

The supplies have got no shelving, and these beds, they’ve got no rails!

“Now this floor, it’s downright filthy, and the rest is far from clean,

And you’ve built a twelve-bed unit, but there isn’t one latrine!

Using one extension cord for two large fans, you’ll start a fire,

And that I.V. bottle’s hangin’ from a live electric wire!

“This old wash sink is a travesty, you’ve never changed the rag,

And it seems your sharps container is a plastic sandwich bag!

You’ve got opened fruit juice bottles, but you’ve no refrigeration.

Having other parents translate? That’s a privacy vi’lation.

“All the lighting is improper when I measure it in lumens;

I’d condemn this place for livestock husbandry, much less for humans!

And this tent, it is an oven! I’m surprised you all aren’t dead,

Though our restaurant inspector says it’d pass… for bakin’ bread!”

That old gent then shook his head, and seemed to scowl an ugly frown;

We could sense from his demeanor an intent to shut us down.

“I’ve a list of these deficiencies; the list is now quite large.

I must share all these citations with the person who’s in charge.”

“Mary Lou and I, we run the tent,” I said in some distress,

“We report to Barbara Fisher; she reports to A.F.S.”

“Barbara Fisher?” said the man; the name, it jogged his memory;

He recalled he’d seen this woman on the news on his T.V.

Then he stared at all the fam’lies, and the children in each bed.

And he measured rather carefully the words that he next said,

Words he whispered in my ear, and then he packed up, and he left.

But he’ll be back tomorrow morning. See, his nephew… has a cleft!

© 2010, Al "Doc" Mehl
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.

Updated 8/11

Congratulations Colorado poet and writer Jane Morton and poet and reciter Dick Morton on the birth of their great grandson Jackson Dane, born in March, 2010. He's shown with his father and brother Cody. Jane writes, "I think Cody was a little disappointed because, 'he can't talk.'"

Posted 4/8

Texas writer and poet Linda Kirkpatrick is the proud (world's youngest) great grandmother to
Genesis "Gen" Isabelle, born January 27, 2010. Linda says, "I always knew that I was great and my little great-granddaughter just proves it!"

Posted 3/16

Poet and reciter Rusty McCall has faced multiple surgeries, radiation, and ongoing treatment for his neurofibromatosis condition. He enrolled in a drug trial in Fall, 2009.

There's no better indication of Rusty McCall's progress that seeing him horseback, the first time in a year, in this photo taken February 14, 2010:

Arizona photographer Lori Faith Merritt (www.photographybyfaith.com) has photographs and an interview with Rusty, titled "Rusty McCall: Punchin’ Cows instead of Clocks" here on her blog at www.lorifaithmerritt.com.

In recognition of Rusty's indomitable spirit, the 2010 Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering is dedicated to Rusty McCall "for his courage and perseverance in spite of his medical problems to carry on the oral tradition of the cowboy."

Find previous updates and photos here.

Posted 2/16