When I explain to people that I am a true introvert, sometimes they look confused.
But you are so friendly!
I am an introvert, not rude! I know how to get along with other humans; I just don’t enjoy it!
But the most common comment is, “But you get on stage and perform!”
Many performers and artists are introverts. The reason we are able to hold the stage is…
I am over here.
You are over there.
And they gave me the microphone!
…which means I have a modicum of control over my environment.
Introverts who are also performers usually come to the stage super prepared.
But how did it come about that I perform cowboy poetry on stage at several gatherings a year?
It is one of those stories that makes me laugh, still.
In 2006, I handed a completed manuscript over to the editor of a series, Voice in the American West, at Texas Tech University Press. I had no idea how long it would take for that manuscript to become a book.
We finally got a publication date for Spring 2011. In January of that year, I attended the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering with my husband, Gail Steiger, who was an invited performer.
I had been to the gathering many times before, always as “support person,” either for Gail or for my son, Oscar, who was one of the young reciters for a few years. That year, my editor, Andy Wilkinson, was also performing.
Andy told me that he hoped to bring the ARCs (advance reader copies) of Rightful Place with him to Elko, Nevada. Alas, the ARCs were not ready when he left Lubbock, Texas, so later in the week the press shipped them to the offices of the Western Folklife Center, the organization that puts on the NCPG every year.
There, surrounded by my family of heart, I got to open the box and hold my first book in my hands.
Oh, how I wish someone had taken pictures of that moment.
Cleo Hansen, a dear friend, and one of the staff of the WFC, said, “If you wrote a book, why didn’t you apply to perform?”
I replied that the book is a collection of essays and I had been to enough cowboy poetry gatherings to know that hell would freeze over before I bored everyone by reading aloud essays to audiences!
Imagine my chagrin when the following year I was invited to perform, not only at the NCPG, but also at the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering (now the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering).
I looked at my husband. “What am I going to do?” Always helpful, he replied,
“I guess you’d better get busy and write some poems!”
Writing poems, whether in a traditional format or free verse or slam style has been a huge blessing in my life… not only my writing life, which now has another outlet, but for the connection performing spoken word has given me to audiences and other performers.
Translating the life I lead into spoken word has increased my family of heart and helped this introvert make friends from all over the world. In many ways, I am not a poet, but a translator, taking what I experience of the natural world and the work of growing food, and making it accessible to others.
I have watch and listened to this performance before. And it moves me more and more each time. This is truly a masterpiece. Thank you. My heart is full. My eyes are dripping.