Liberty Student Succeeds in Poetry Writing Contest
Chosen from among 3,000 entries, junior Joe Gorman ranked in the top 10 in the Cowboy Poetry Contest at the 20th annual Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival held recently at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Being in the top 10, Gorman had the opportunity to recite his poem from memory in front of judges and a live audience.
His English teacher, Debra Cook, said, “To be in the top 10 is considered a great honor. Joe did a great job reciting his poem in front of a nearly-packed arena of parents, judges, and guests.”
Cook said that in her junior English class each year, her students read and discuss poetry published by cowboy poets, as well as write their own.
“After everyone submits poems for class, they are given the option to enter the contest. Liberty graduate Courtney Zanetti was the first place winner in 2008, and she received a scholarship for $3,500,” Cook said.
Gorman gave permission to reprint his top-ranking poem below:
Beloved Horse
From where a cowboy gets his joy
Everybody knows the source
Whether they live in Texas or Illinois
A cowboy loves his horse.
Early in the morn’ a cowboy will rise
To feed his beautiful creature
For it is his most valuable prize,
His very best and cherished feature.
And later on when the sun is high
A cowboy will keep his steed cool
He knows his partner would like to lie
In a cold water bath in a giant pool.
When the night grows dark
And the coyotes howl
The rancher will light a spark
To make sure they don’t prowl.
Amidst the middle of the night
When the cowboy can’t sleep
The moon in shinin’ bright
As he walks to the stables for a peep.
As restless as can be,
The cowboy saddles up for a ride
A mutual decision by the horse and he
They keep a fast paced stride.
Into the darkness they go
Their souls are intertwined;
A bond more powerful than you could know
Their relationship is one of a kind.
This cowboy gathering and festival is named after Red Steagall, the Poet Laureate of Texas in 2006. Born in Gainesville, Texas, Steagall as a youth competed in rodeos and learned to play the guitar and mandolin. After college, took his passion for the western lifestyle to California, where he shared western traditions and values with the rest of the world through songs, poems, books, television and movies.
Steagall said that he hoped everyone who attended the event would return home with a new perspective on true western living.
Gorman had the opportunity to meet Steagall at the event.
The annual gathering and festival is an authentic western event that featured poets like Gorman, western entertainers, western swing dances, and an action-packed rodeo, where teams of ranch hands from 14 famous Texas ranches compete for the coveted prize of being the best ranch at the rodeo.
This year’s event began with a wagon train that left Jacksboro, Texas, on Sunday, Oct. 17. It then traveled through the Texas cities of Perrin, Mineral Wells, Weatherford, and Azle. On Oct. 19, the wagon train traveled overnight at the First Monday grounds in Weatherford before it arrived at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Oct. 21.
Other featured events included a cowboy trappings and trade show, the Ranch Cutting Horse Association National Finals, Craig Cameron horsemanship clinics, a cowboy church, a youth fiddle contest and chuck wagon cook-off, an invitational Tejas Vaquero and Ranchero Visitadores Team Roping, the annual Texas Trail of Fame induction ceremony, and entertainment including musical performances and country western singers.