So I’m rolling down the highway this morning on the way to Alpine. Jerry Jeff Walker is with me on the Victrola and the anticipation is jumping around in my head like a grasshopper after a couple of white crosses. I wish I had a five dollar bill for every time I’ve talked about The Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering since I was here last year. I guess I should admit that some of my anticipation had its roots in doubt, ‘cause you know how they say, “you can’t go back”. That the reality of a return to some special place doesn’t usually live up to the memory. But the Gathering did not disappoint.

As you approach Alpine from almost any direction, the most prominent thing you see, up on the hillside, is Sul Ross State University, the annual home of the Poetry Gathering. It’s named for Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross whose family came to Texas from Iowa in 1839 to escape the Iowa winters. Imagine that. In his life Ross served as a Texas Ranger, an officer in the Confederate Army, and eventually State Senator and then Governor. If there was anything in his history that attaches him to Alpine, or this area specifically, I missed it in my quick scan of his life.

This is an aerial shot of the sole building that existed at it’s founding. Today it serves as the administration building, joined by nineteen others that randomly traverse the hillside with a beautiful “mall” at their center. Further down the hill, across the highway that passes below campus, is a sports complex.

I took these pictures just to give you a sense of what the format of the event feels like. My sense is that mostly regulars come to this, but somehow it felt like there were a lot more people here this year than last. Maybe they all read my blog from last year. 🙂 The sessions all feature three writers or singer song- writers. Sometimes it might actually be four people because there are some husband and wife, and brother and sister teams. Each one lasts fifty minutes and the poems or songs performed are loosely based on a particular subject. Rank Horses, Desert Solitaire, Starlight on the Range, and Snake Bit and Saddle Sore, are some examples. One session I’d like to make note of was called The Spiritual Side. It was exactly that and quite emotional. When Jean and Gary Prescott, from Ovalo, TX, finished their rendition of “Because He Lives” most of the room was in tears. If I tried to write too much more about individual acts I can’t imagine  where or how this post could end.

As I said, this year’s Gathering did not disappoint. Where last year I was here only during one afternoon, this year I attended sessions in both the morning and afternoon of both days. I do know quite clearly what draws me. There is a basic goodness and honesty in all who gather here, performer and listener alike. The performers are all current or former ranch people first, and performers second. I can only imagine how scattered the people who come to hear them are. Without even trying I noticed license plates in the parking lot from Michigan, Ontario, Saskatchewan, California, Wyoming, and Washington. I don’t know what next year will bring, but I do know I’ll be back again. And if lucky, again and again.

 From scattered afar they come,                                                                            These people of the land                                                                                              who love and revere what comes from God’s hand.

Horses and dogs and cows they know.  Blazing hot sun                                 and sting of wind driven snow.

They know love and loss, joy and sorrow,                                                          Work, and the stiffness of rest, and borrow                                                       They will from all of these things,                                                                                  For character inside and a voice that sings                                                               Out a line or a verse that honors what life brings.

For horses and dogs and cows they know, and the                                    Warmth of the sun and quiet of fresh snow.