Viewpoints of The Poet Lariat

 Welcome 

Welcome to an all new blog site featuring the viewpoints of Clark Crouch, a Poet Lariat. This site offers a cowboy's view of selected both historic and current events as well as western poetry with an emphasis on cowboy poetry in the spirit of Charles Badger Clark, the classic cowboy poet who was the first Poet Laurette of South Dakota appointed in 1937. Despite that grand title he called himself a Poet Lariat. 


 Your host, Clark Crouch, now nearing 95 years of age, is a true modern Poet Lariat and the author/editor of more than twenty books of western and cowboy poetry. His writings reflect his experience as a youthful cowboy in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. They are also the result of the encouragement and tutoring which he received at age 12 in 1940 when he became acquainted with Charles Badger Clark at a youth camp at Victoria Springs State Park in Custer County Nebraska.

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Tutoring to New Poets

 The life of an author, whether poetry or prose, can be somewhat isolating. Over the years I found that there are a great many would be cowboy poets in search of assistance. On request I have tutored several who have now gained a great deal of recognition as writers and performers of western and cowboy poetry. It has been very rewarding for me to observe and celebrate their success in the field. These new poets are enjoying a secret of the profession...authors and performers of traditional western poetry tend to receive many more performance requests than do most producers of unstructured modern poetry. One reason might be that some modern verses tend to be ethereal while western poetry  is straight forward and requires no explanation to understand it's meaning when presented orally. 
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Origin of a Poet Lariat

The original poet lariat comes from the book, Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain. The name was later assumed by Will Rogers during his rope-spinning days. It was a grand heritage adopted by Badger Clark to promote the West through cowboy poetry. Since then, a score or more of today’s poets have also adopted the title. Some are even cheating a bit by producing free form western poetry with no rhyme or rhthm in place of in traditional poetic forms as actually used by cowboys as they rode the range in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Some today even adopt the title as they write and publish nonwestern verses! 
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