The Working Cowboy Poet

The Working Cowboy Poet. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Inspiration and passion. Those two words seem to be the driving force for South Dakota cattle rancher and cowboy poet, Ken Cook. His inspiration came from his grandfather.

COOK: My grandpa was a cowboy and of all the men I admire, respect and look up to most, like I say in my book, he’s the guy I most wanted to be like him. Not only as a cowboy or a rancher, but as a man he taught me more about cowboying and being a man than anybody else.

Cook says his success comes also from his passions.

COOK: The poems are the same about my kids; the blizzard poem with my son Kyle. Poems are the same about my wife, my daughter and then what I do creatively is I create pieces of writing and some of them are about no one or nobody except men that I admire in my head and in my heart.

A background doing theatre and some writing skills coupled with a visit to the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering all rolled together to pique Cook’s desire to get into the game.

COOK: Baxter (Black) came to town a couple of times and I said, you know: I like that. I’m a pretty good writer - people tell me and I just started writing because I liked it. And I liked it in meter and rhyme and I liked it about what I was doing and that was ranching.

Check out his personal website at kencookcowboypoet.com.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.