Oakesdale, Washington
Dick has written poetry since the 1960s and became aware of cowboy poetry in 1990 when he journeyed to Elko because he heard some Australian poets were performing there. He was a fan of bush poetry and had actually written verse in the American cowboy poetry genre without even knowing there was such a thing. He worked a harvest in western Australia in the early 1980s and fell in love with Australian culture. He has made many trips there since then, including performing at their National Folk Festival for many years. In 1982, Dick started a band featuring Australian folk music. The group played for a couple of decades and produced a CD titled Sound the Chorus Once Again. Dick has spent his life in the rural West and has a deep love for Western landscapes, ethos and environments. He said he also enjoys writing absurd poems, “because cowboy poetry audiences seem to enjoy laughing.”