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Oklahoma doctor enjoys creating cowboy poetryENID, Okla. (AP)--Lynn Phillips sits in the living room of his home dressed in his hospital scrubs waiting to be called back to the hospital, as he talks about his new CD of cowboy poetry. "It started out as a form of entertainment on cattle drives. Cowboys would tell them around the campfire to pass the time," he said. Most of the original cowboy poetry is serious, but in recent years the poetry has taken on a more humorous tone with the arrival of such cowboy poets as Baxter Black and Waddie Mitchell, who are nationally known. Phillips has written stories for a long time and started to turn some of them into poems. He read some to friends, who suggested he make a CD of his poetry. Phillips put together about an hour's worth of poetry and stories, and got Enid native Kyle Dillingham to write some musical accompaniment and mix the material. He made the CD at KJ Productions in Enid. Enid's Mike Klemme contributed some of his artwork for the cover and his friend Gary Cobb did a graphic design. "A garage thing turned out very professional," he said. His poetry discusses cowboys and the cowboy life, horses, tells some true stories and defines what it means to be a cowboy. Phillips' father was a bull rider and steer wrestler and Phillips has been announcing rodeos since he was in high school and is now a PRCA rodeo announcer. One poem is about Phillips' first night on call in the hospital when he treated an old cowboy who asked, "Who's gonna feed the cattle?" Phillips is an anesthesiologist who practices in Enid. "I've always done it," he says of writing. "I'll give them away and sell some at rodeos. I'm fascinated with those who listen to it and when I ask them which one they liked best, I'm fascinated that none comes to the top." Phillips wanted to put the CD together with a common theme and looked up cowboy in the dictionary. That definition seemed incomplete for him so he expands on it in his recorded material. He takes out a notebook with handwritten notes that contain his work. Some of the poems seem to write themselves, others are hard to write and some he abandons. His biggest problem seems to be getting off subject. "I'll start a tree and branch off into something else poetically and pretty soon the branch is bigger than the tree, so I cut it off and go back to the tree," he said. Phillips started in high school when he entered a Future Farmer of America speech contest. After that he became involved in speech, and when an announcer was needed for an FFA rodeo, he volunteered. He started announcing FFA rodeos and that became his summer job. He announced rodeo through college and later joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association. He has written scripts for rodeo events in the past evolving naturally into writing cowboy poetry. "I love little-known stories and that's what most of my poems are about. People and life situations," he said. One poem is about a conversation with an old-time rodeo stock producer, about the greatest bucking horse he ever owned. Another one is about taking time for the important things in life. He also has a children's story he wants to write, so his creative side is keeping him busy. "It's just something I've always done. I'll probably keep on doing it, whether I make another CD or not," he said. 11/17/08 Date: 11/7/08 Advertisement
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