COMING ATTRACTIONS

This year’s Cowboy Poetry Gathering opened on a literary note before getting down to the business at hand Friday in Elko, Nev., with scores of cowboys reciting their works and singing their ballads. Organizers estimate about 8,000 people from 18 states and Canada were on hand for the opening sessions. Before their homespun verses were delivered, the gathering began with its first literary session--cowboys reciting such works as Rudyard Kipling’s “The Ballad of East and West,” Robert Service’s “My Lady Luck” and an Australian classic, “In the Droving Days,” by “Waltzing Matilda” composer Banjo Patterson. “This isn’t a typical cowboy poetry session--not typical at all,” said David Stanley, assistant folk arts coordinator for the Utah Arts Council.