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Looking up to a Poet

Courtesy of the Crosby Journal

BY CECILE WEHRMAN

 

When cowboy poet T.J. Casey started working with school children, he hoped they would look up to him and

appreciate the cowboy heritage of the American West.

Children can't help but look up to the 6-foot 3 inch cowboy, but their response to him has as much to do with

his demeanor as his height.

"I kind of put myself on their level," Casey says, and it doesn't hurt that he uses live students to demonstrate

the finer points of steer roping.

Casey is spending the week at Divide County Elementary School as an artist in residence in cooperation with

Meadowlark Arts Council and the North Dakota Council on the Arts.

Besides exposing students to traditional cowboy poetry, Casey will be at the center of a program Thursday

night that is open to the public.

The poet got to work first thing Monday with students in grades five and six.

Maria Overbo's class spent some time with Casey getting a background in cowboy history. He pointed out that

the old time cowboys came from all over the world, including Spain, Ireland and Scotland, but some of the first

cowboys were former slaves.

"The were running away from slavery after the Civil War and they headed west," he said, becoming some of the

roughest and toughest cowboys of all time.

These cowboys never received the recognition they deserved, "and that's not right," Casey tells the kids.

Though cowboys came from many cultures, their traditions evolved into what people the world over today think

of as the American cowboy.

"There's a lot of really neat history that goes along with our culture," and Casey wants to make sure children realize

that culture is still alive. Though he himself makes his living as much as a poet and entertainer, he's still a real

working cowboy, too.

"The cowboy is still here and it's going to be awful hard to get rid of us," he says, before leading the children in a

poetry writing workshop that gets them rhyming faster than a cowpoke can saddle a horse.

Casey lays out a simple and traditional cowboy poetry rhyming scheme then turns students loose with pen and paper,

but not before warning them to steer clear of word varmints like "purple," "orange," and "month."

"If you do figure out something to rhyme with them let me know. I might have to steal it," he joshes.

"What rhymes with paper?" a student asks.

"Caper," Casey offers, then asks himself, "is that a word? Yeah."

"What rhymes with horse?" another student wants to know.

"Remorse . . .of course . . ."

He spends a lot of time rhyming words and he tells the kids they'll get good at it too, the more they practice.

The carrot he dangles for getting them to work hard is the promise that the best of the poems written this week will

be showcased on websites featuring cowboy poetry from other students. His website is www.tjcasey.net, and another

site is www.cowboypoetry.com.

Casey learned poetry at the age of 14, writing his first poem after a long day of fencing.

"My back is sore, my eyes are red, I think it's time for bed," the poem began.

From that humble beginning, Casey has gone on to publish his cowboy poetry and win accolades for his poetry, singing

and songwriting. His CD, "Blue Montana Skies," is currently number 5 on the Sunset Music Chart for Western Swing.

Casey and students will read cowboy poetry during a community event Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. at the DCE gymnasium,

followed by a 30-minute show of Casey's music. A free will offering will be taken at the door.

Prior to the program, Crosby wagon master Lloyd Nygaard will offer covered wagon rides at the fairgrounds with his team

of horses beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Nygaard will also demonstrate saddlemaking and leather works at the school on Thursday.

Students are encouraged to wear cowboy clothes Thursday and they'll eat specially labeled "cowboy" meals for school lunch all week.

 

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