Coyote Cowboy Poetry by Baxter Black

Baxter Black, a cowboy poet and large-animal veterinarian, claims, I was raised with the coyotes. No, this is a serious situation. I grew up in New Mexico and attended New Mexico State University in Las Cruces for three years before continuing on to Colorado State University for four years to obtain my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. I struggled in veterinary school. (The price of a gallon of petrol was higher than my GPA!) During the summers of my undergraduate years, I worked as 'cowboy labor' at several cattle businesses. I also had a band and rode bulls to help support myself.

I worked in the livestock business for thirteen years after graduation and would still be doing so if cowboy poetry hadn't taken over my life. Because poetry is almost illegal in the United States, I've had to work on the fringes of the mainstream to make a living - outside the box, as it were. For the past thirty years, I've been performing cowboy poetry (imagine Shakespeare rather than Robert Frost) in venues all around the United States and Canada. The best thing about my job is that I've never had to beg appearances. It's all been word of mouth. To supplement my performances, I've dabbled in best-selling books, CD and DVD publishing, a regular column, a commercial radio show, National Public Radio appearances, cable television, and commercial production. My wife and I started our entertainment business in Colorado.

We relocated to Arizona twelve years ago to care for my parents. I'm still on the road a lot, and we have five people working in our office. We have a teenage son and a married daughter. While I'm not on the road, I punch cows on our little ranch near the Mexican border.

It's not a awful existence.