I’ve been accused of being the female Baxter Black, who was a dear friend and one of the most well known Cowboy Poets. It used to bother me that I was compared to Baxter but after he passed on to the Lord’s Pastures, I got to thinking that maybe Baxter might think it a great joke and then I thought again, what an honor to be compared to him! So, if folks think I am as good (I ain’t) as Baxter, then who am I to argue! I hope the poetry I write is of good enough caliber, just to honor my dear friend.
Who am I? I am Mary Powell, retired Cowboy in the Girl Kind of way (I was a cowboy for over 27 years), I am a goat rancher, goat rental professional, story teller, writer, poet, and slave to a small pack of working Border Collies. I am the Barnyard Mare, Duchess of the Prairie.
I’ve spent most of my life in Kansas, working in agriculture, I worked as a parts clerk for a John Deere dealership, spent a fair time on working cow-calf operations and feed yards, worked as an all-around hand on a farm/ranch operation and now manage a fair few meat goats. I did spend a few months travelling around and worked on a couple ranches in Oregon but found that the Great Plains is where I belong. I live in Southeast Kansas with my mother and 7 Border Collies, 4 horses and a fair few goats.
What People Say
“You can’t shoot too many arrows in the sky.”
From Baxter Black’s “Lessons From a Desperado Poet”
“In fear, I crossed the prairie like a rowdy wild mustang, but I will long remember that fateful night when the stars sang.”
From Scott Wiswell’s Poem, ‘When the Stars Sang”
“The Lord is my strength and my shield: my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.” Psalms 28:7
A Psalm of King David
Duchess of the Prairie 