This is the Who is Who of our Gatherin’ with a short bio for each.
Our Hostess is Ms Dove Morgan Schmidt. Dove started the gatherin’ in 2016. She is cowgirl poet, working ranch cowgirl, author and has a ministry through the Loving Hearts of Route 66 in Bristow, Oklahoma.
Our Camp Cookie, the best darn cook north and south of the Canadian border, Poppa Mac!
Poet/Preacher/Storyteller Poppa Mac assures us that all his poetry and stories are 100% true except for the parts he has made up. He shares real life poetry and stories that connect with the audience, with his poetry coming from the point of view of someone who has been there and down that. His travels have taken him all over Canada and the United States delighting audiences at trail rides, rodeos, cowboy churches, and gatherings. He was born in Manitoba Canada and raised throughout Western Canada. Geoff was drawn to the Cowboy Lifestyle at an early age. He has done just about everything there is to do on a ranch. Started at the bottom as a waddie and worked his way up to wrangler and even did a season or 12 as the chuck cook. Poppa Mac worked the rodeo arena as a rodeo clown, wrangler and Preacher. He still finds time to help out in the pasture working cattle!
Our Chaplain, Randy Shelly, providing the Spiritual food for our souls.
Meet Randy and Ann Shelly from Montgomery, Texas. Randy was the Greenhorn Champion and Gary Brace Memorial Award winner at Crossroads in 2024 as well as Reserve Champion in the Top Hand Division in 2025. Ann will be making her debut in the Duet Poem Division with Randy at the 2026 Crossroads Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Randy also authored his first book of Cowboy Poetry, This Old Black Hat, in 2025. He is serves as the Chaplain for the Crossroads Gathering. Both are retired from careers in public education and serve at Lone Star Cowboy Church in Montgomery. He believes in his heart that his poetry is a gift from God and has turned it into a ministry of sorts. To God be the Glory!
Our judges do not judge to be critical or mean, they point out areas in which we could improve and they will NEVER EVER shred a poem or poet to pieces, that is NOT the Cowboy Way; they lift up and encourage us to be better poets and performers!
Our first adult division judge is the Amazing Smokey Culver, cowboy, musician and cowboy poet.
Adult Judge and amazing lady who always has encouraging words is Christy McCreary.
Christy is an East Texas native who grew up roaming the Piney Woods on horseback and never lost her love of a good story. With more than twenty years in education -from Oklahoma classrooms to state assessment leadership she is now Cognia’s Director of Data & Quality, helping ensure schools’ stories are told with accuracy and heart.
She is currently working on her doctorate in education leadership and lives outside Bristow, Oklahoma, with her husband, dog, cats, and chickens. Christy brings her educator’s eye, her rural roots and appreciation for plainspoken, powerful language to the judge’s table at the Crossroads Cowboy Poetry Gatherin’
Adult Judge : Priscilla Plumlee.
“I was born and raised a country girl, and the daughter of the famous Dawn Anita Plumlee. I was blessed to grow up on a ranch, and had the privilege of working side by side with my Dad working cattle. I ran barrels for a few years on my trusty steed, Pride. At 14, I was given the opportunity to work in the legal field with my mom. She was my mentor for all good things that I learned about hard work and work ethic. I have four children and five grandchildren who are the absolute joy of my life. I was a bit of a poetry fanatic in high school, and wrote many poems. My mom, of course, really took the lead when she began writing cowboy poems about true life events. She most definitely had the knack for telling the story and completely drawing you in. It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as a judge for the Crossroads Gatherin’, meeting so many cowboys and cowgirls, and making lasting friendships. One thing I know for sure, Mom would be very proud.”
Our youth judges: KC LaCourse & Mary Powell
Mary Powell is often referred to as The Barnyard Mare, Duchess of the Prairie. She is a semi-retired ‘Cowboy in the Girl Kind of Way’, goat rancher and sometimes a Border Collie trainer. She has a bachelor’s degree in Livestock Production Management that never taught her anything about meat goats but has a self taught PhD in raising meat goats from the School of Hard Knocks. She has a goat rental business, helps the neighbor take care of his cattle, raises meat goats and an occasional litter of working Border Collies as well as being the sole caregiver of her 87+ year old mother. She was the State of Kansas Cowboy Poet in the humorous division in 2023 and has won several writing awards for her prose as well as her poetry. Mary is from Longton, Kansas.
Crossroads Cowboy Poetry Gathering 