Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letter to the editor:

Discover the power of poetry

Being new to Nevada, I was amused to learn about the Cowboy Poetry gathering but surprised to see there was little or no discussion of poetry at all. Don’t worry; it happens all the time in articles with titles such as “Poetry in Motion,” “The Poetry of Dance” or “The Rhythms and Rhyme.” Moreover, the actual story is often something about art, dance or figure skating. You see, except for mine, poetry isn’t generally sexy or considered newsworthy.

However, Cowboy Poetry is just one genre of a very happening poetry phenomenon that has the power to make our lives more understandable and better focused. Moreover, among all types of verse, poetry is a “big tent” — though some, notably slammers, might disagree.

What’s not surprising is all the faux poets and poetry pretenders in a world where, in Elko’s case, everyone shows up in cowboy personae. Just like the Orange County yuppies where I come from. Or like in a poem by the late Charles Bukowski where he noted the “hippies and yippies (on Sunset Boulevard) who hitchhike in $50 boots.” Fifty dollars, and that was in 1972! I guess some things never change.

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