Growing up in Texas, in those small-time, small-town grocery stores that dotted the barren landscape, there would always be a spinning rack of postcards and greeting cards with usually grotesque paintings of an old-timer using the outhouse while a donkey peeks his head in, often filled with cowboy poetry about horse manure, sleepy Injuns and nagging wives with rolling pins.
I’m pretty sure that’s the type of cowboy poetry Gov. Kevin Stitt likes and what he thought he was getting when he recently named cowboy poet Joe Russell Kreger as Oklahoma’s latest poet laureate. From governor.ok.gov:
“It is an honor to appoint Joe Russell Kreger as the 2021-2022 Oklahoma State Poet Laureate,” said Governor Stitt. “Joe’s journey to creative writing shows that it is never too late for new ventures and I look forward to this rancher turned ‘cowboy poet’ carrying on our Oklahoma tradition and promoting his work across the state.”