The Notorious Clanton Gang and Terry "Ike" Clanton are dedicated to maintaining the Old West custom of telling tale tales by showcasing a different cowboy poet on their Cowboy Poet of the Month Site. So says the site's mission statement. (I hate that term. It reminds me of a seventh grade English teacher that wanted a thesis sentence for each essay.) The site also includes a brief note from the featured poet. Shad A. Pease the featured poet for June states: "I'm a cowboy poet in the southwest. I do a lot of traveling with this poetry thing and figured I'd send you a couple of my own." He has three poems e-published on the site: "J.B.", "Fires From Hell," and "Phantom."

The poems follow the tradition of narrative poetry familiar to many from hearing a teacher read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service. The story line of Pease's poetry is dramatic. Maybe even melodramatic, but it does hold the reader's interest. I was especially taken with "Phantom," a ghost story that included a hanging and a stampede. It has all the elements of a good western – violence, conflict, action, dramatic setting, horses, cattle, cowboys. The story is told following an A/B/A/B rhyme pattern with four line stanzas.

Yet within those constraints Pease rounds up plenty of fresh images and delightful word choices. Sure, he drags up the staples of western literature: nerves of steel, and icy souls and callused hands; however, his audience wants and accepts the inclusion of clichés, much the same way country music relies on them. Cowboy poetry might not be cool, but it is not something to smirk about. In different forms it has been around for more than a hundred years. Many believe it is closely related to the bardic traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In this century, cowboy poetry has moved from stories told around a campfire to the popular cowboy songs of the early 1900s, such as "Streets of Laredo," "The Strawberry Roan," and "Cool Water." All the old cowboy songs told a story. And now, with this site and others like it, cowboy poetry is on the Internet where the modern day cowboy/girl poet keeps alive the tradition of telling tales of the Old West.

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