I got an email from the home goods store Pottery Barn recently, but in my bleary morning-eyed state I misread it as Poetry Barn and eagerly opened the message. I hope it’s near Monterey, I thought, already anticipating what I might find inside and going through my calendar in my head to plan a visit. Never has attractive patio furniture been so disappointing.
It got me thinking, though, about poetry and the west and I remembered hearing that my new hometown has an annual Cowboy Poetry Festival in December. Turns out there is also a website dedicated to Cowboy Poetry where, among many other fantastic programs, a Lariat Laureate is chosen from among the many cowboy poets.
Lariat is one of the great cowboy words. According to my Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, lariat is an American English word from 1832 meaning lasso, and borrowed from the Spanish la reata, the rope.
We were lucky enough to visit a ranch in south Monterey County recently where we saw the lariat put to use with elegant expertise, poetry in motion.
