At the 12th Annual Gila Valley Cowboy Poet and
Music Gathering in Thatcher, Bunny Dryden was pleased to be a featured
poet. She has something to share; a way of life that is dwindling away
along with the older generation. "I want to keep the reality of
who a rancher is and his daily life alive. You can dress anyone up in
a cowboy outfit, but it is who they are and how they live and their
experiences that make them a real cowboy; it is the heart of them. Just
as my poem states, “There Ain’t No Gender in Cowboy”".
Bunny started a poetry contest with the 5th
and 6th grades in the Gila Valley where the winners get to read their
poems on the local radio station and at the gathering on Saturday at
the noon session. She is a member of the Graham County Visitors and
Tourism Council and was the MC at last year’s third annual Tourism
Summit. She has been a featured poet on the Tucson radio program: Legacy,
and had her poem “Angel Wranglers” published by Southwest
Whispers Publishing Co. within their book of cowboy poetry.
"Cowboys are Human Too" was the first prize winner for the
poetry contest that ran during the Gila Valley Cowboy Poet & Music
Gathering. Bunny has performed with Baxter Black in Las Vegas at their
first annual gathering, and was a Featured Poet in Prescott at their
gathering in 2004, she has performed at the Apache Junction Cowboy Poet
Gathering as an invited poet, was a highlighted performer during the
World Congress on Adventure Travel and Ecotourism in Tucson in 1999,
and performs for various organizations and schools on request. Bunny
has a self-published book of poetry titled, “Cow Trails and Pony
Tales.”