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<< Previous   of   Next >> Courtesy photo  (click to enlarge) Award-winning cowboy poet Clark Crouch lives in Bothell.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Monday, July 21, 2008 Cowboy poet is retired, but he's far from retiring "There's a valley in the hills where the grass seems extra green, where a creek meanders through, and the air is always clean. Sagebrush grows up on the hills and some deer graze by the stream ... it all seems so much at peace ... evidence of nature's scheme." That's a vision, in the rhythm of a poem, by Clark Crouch, 79, of Bothell. He's won awards for his work about fellers, horses and campfire embers as a Western and cowboy poet. "I write about one new poem a week and I perform quite a bit at service clubs, cowboy gatherings, community events, retirement and nursing homes, etcetera," Crouch said. "Most recently I did a four-show tour into Wyoming." He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission and the federal government for 32 years and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Air Force. Following federal retirement, he served for 25 years as a management consultant. A strategic planning model he developed is in use around the world. Where did he get country roots? When he was 11, his family lived in the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. Amenities were strictly mid-19th century in Nebraska, with bugs dropping from the sod ceiling. Bedrooms were created by hanging cheesecloth. This great-grandfather, who married his high school sweetheart 59 years ago, attended a series of one-room schools, walking or riding his pony as much as five miles each way. "I always carried a rifle or shotgun along, hoping to spot a rabbit or an occasional prairie chicken for dinner," he said. "We were pretty remote." During that time, Crouch met Charles Badger Clark, then the poet laureate of South Dakota. That meeting inspired his first poem. Adrienne Hulbert invited the cowboy poet to speak at a meeting of the Monroe Vocal Project Toastmaster International Club in Monroe. "What a great time we had," Hulbert said. "He was great. Very smooth. His introductions to each of his poems were wonderful." The former Richland city councilman is one of the true old cowboys, she said, and his poems will help keep the cowboy life alive. This year, Crouch won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for his book, "Western Images." "Restin' there beside the creek, enjoyin' the nighttime view, what more could a feller ask when a hard day's ride is through?" Hard to imagine he lives in a mobile home, not a ranch. Crouch said the only critters he sees are ants, inquisitive mice, resident feral cats and some nighttime raccoons. But the city boy doesn't look far to find a cowboy heart. Columnist Kristi O'Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com

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