Save a Horse

Never really got the whole "cowboy poetry" thing. Seems like contrived sentimentality, the bane of good poetry, but since this Sunday Fort Worth will mark the National Day of the Cowboy with a tribute that includes the Cowtown Opry cowboy poetry contest, we thought we'd give it a shot. Let's see: In the barn the cowgirls come and go/Speaking of last night's rodeo. No? Then how about: The herds of Kennedy are dead/Over is their bovine joy/Of old the world on rib eye fed/Gray tofu is now her painted toy? Or, The bull is the father of the calf/and suddenly it occurs to me/I'm no good at cowboy poetry. OK, so maybe it's harder than we think. See for yourself during the opry's "Tribute to the Cowboys Celebration," which will also include Western music from the Cowtown Opry Saddle Pals, a gunfight re-enactment, stories and memoirs from the "Rodeo Rascals" and 1930s-era trick riders Tindall Parris and Mitzi Lucas Riley. The show in the Fort Worth Stockyards, 131 E. Exchange Ave, is 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Visit cowtownopry.org for more information.
Sun., July 29, 2-4 p.m.