Cowboy poet Dick Warwick will open artist series 5th year

The fifth season of Colfax’s Meet the Artist series will feature Dick Warwick of Oakesdale, known in venues both in the United States and Australia for his cowboy poetry and his marriage of cowboy poetry and Australian Bush poetry, next Thursday, Jan. 6, at Colfax library on Main Street at 7 p.m.

Warwick grew up on the family farm near Oakesdale and after earning a degree in English from Stanford University, doing a little graduate work and trying out a few jobs, decided the place for him was farming.

He and a friend decided in 1981 to apply for a job with a harvest contractor in western Australia as combine drivers. They were hired and spent four months on contract, enough time to fall in love with all things Australian and to draw Warwick back to Australia a total of six times.

While minding the farm, Warwick and three other musicians in 1982 formed the Urban Coyote Bush Band and performed off and on for six to eight years. Warwick had taught himself a variety of stringed instruments and the harmonica. The band gets back together occasionally and recently performed at Dahmen Barn in Uniontown.

Warwick had heard Australian bush poetry during visits down under, but had never heard of a genre called cowboy poetry in America until 1989 when he went to Elko, Nev., to take part in the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He said he had written a few poems that would work as cowboy poetry and, during an open mic session, read them. The next year he found himself on the program.

Warwick points out that all “working man” jobs spurred poetry. There is Logger Poetry and Fisher Poetry and, in Australia, Shearer Poetry. For years the lone entertainment for workers in many crafts and jobs was “themselves” and the poetry of meter and rhyme fed into a wealth of expression. He noted the term “cowboy poetry” is actually too narrow.

Warwick has been a featured poet at the Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Ozark Folk Center and many other venues, events and festivals. For three years he was an invited participant in several Australian folk and poetry festivals. In March of 2006 he returned to Western Australia as a cultural ambassador sponsored by the US consulate in Perth. He performed in schools, festivals and other events.

For more than 10 years, Warwick has hosted Australian poets and musicians, introducing audiences in the Pacific Northwest to bush poetry and the tradition that parallels that of our own cowboy poetry.

In January, Warwick for the fifth time will be a featured performer at the national gathering in Elko. His poetry has been published in several editions, including this year in the annual Australian anthology, The Bronze Swagman Book of Verse. He has produced a number of CDs including “From the Range to the Strange” and a book, “Out West to Outback and Beyond.”

Meet the Artist programs are the first Thursday of every month, during the school year. The sessions are informal and provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions and get an up-close look at a variety of arts.