What do you call a gathering of cowboys?

Western music and poetry brought out a range of emotions during the 22nd Annual Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering as people laughed, smiled and shed a few tears.

Every song or poem from each artist told a story of romance, drinking, farming, family, traveling, and adventure in the eyes of a cowboy. Floyd Beard has performed music and poetry since the late 1970s. Beard said he always had a love for rhyming with words, which helped him become a poet.

“I have always been in love with rhyming words,” Beard said. “My mother said I have been doing this since I was a little bitty boy. I started writing poetry just out of high school and I have been doing this for a little over 50 years.”

Beard said what makes a great poem is writing what a person experiences in their life. He said his poetry is based on places he has traveled and his work on the ranch.

“I like to write about actual things I have seen,” Beard said. “I write my poetry on my experiences of being a cowboy and working on the ranch. When I am performing poetry, I would rather not be able to read it but perform it in front of people. I want to build the vision in their mind so they can see what my words are talking about.”

He said both music and poetry tell a story

“A lot of poems have become songs over the years,” Beard said. “I would be working out in the saddle all day and I would have these thoughts come to me and I would be rhyming in my mind. When I get back to the house I would write it down then get my guitar and put it to work.”

Due to being unable to use his left arm now, Beard can no longer play a guitar but he continues writing poems and does what is called rhyme and meter poetry. This type of poetry is when two words share the same sound ending and the meter is the occurrence of stressed and unstressed parts of a series of words in a line.

Rick Spencer grew up in Cheyenne and has traveled to many places. Spencer said when it comes to poetry and music, he has done a little of everything. He said there is a cowboy culture language within poetry.

“I have been doing poetry since I was 12 years old,” Spencer said. “I have played in garage bands back in the 1960s. We have a cultural language in cowboy poetry called Wyomingese. What this means is that cowboys have the ability to say any word in one syllable.”

Spence said what makes a good poem is experiencing the places the poet has been to.

“The poems I like are when the poet writes what they see and puts it in the right meter,” Spence said.

Cora Rose Wood who used to live in the Platte Valley, has become a rising star in music. Wood said her love for music and poetry all started at a young age.

“I started singing with my mom when I was little,” Wood said. “I learned how to yodel when I was 6 years old and I started writing songs about the cowboy way of life. It was the life I was living everyday so, when I was not at school, I would be singing and writing songs.”

Wood said one of the important lessons she has learned about writing music is to be true to what she puts into her music and never be afraid to be her authentic self.

“The best way to write music is to be authentic to yourself,” Rose Wood said. “It is a joy for me to share my music with other people.”

Ken Raymond, a local musician from Rawlins, also performed on stage and said he started playing music from the day his dad introduced him to a guitar.

“My old man started me out with a guitar when I was 10 years old,” Raymond said. “Before I learned to play the guitar I wrote my first song about my cat who passed away when I was 3 years old and the name of it was “Dead, Dead, Dead”.

Raymond said writing new songs is an important part of being a musician.

“One of the things I appreciate from a song writer is versatility,’ Raymond said. “I like to hear different sounds in music. When you listen to any music artist and compare their song to another one of their songs, you will find some are different from their other songs and some are just the same. I get tired of hearing the same thing over again and this is why versatility is important to me.”

The Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering ended its event on July 19 at Encampment K-12 gymnasium. There were live performances from Daron Little, poet Yvonne Hollenbeck and Kevin Davis.