American cowboys have been writing poetry for more than a century. This little-known literary tradition both belies the macho image of the Western Heroes and serves as an imaginative form of oral history.Cowboy Poets travels to the big sky country of Nevada, Montana, and Arizona to explore the tradition and to introduce three working cowboys and the poetry they write about the lifestyle and land they love. Cowboy Poets profiles three cowboy reciters, Waddie Mitchell, Slim Kite and Wally McRae, representing three different aspects of the cowboy-poetry tradition.