We pay attention to poets and poetry on this blog because we believe the culture of our region and nation is essential to the social glue that binds together people in a democratic system. People who have a sense of shared identity and shared fate, I believe, are more likely to participate in and take responsibility for the public dimension of our lives. That said, in this crazy mixed up federal budget battle that moves from skirmish to skirmish one of the recent attacks involves the small amount of federal funding that supports a folklife center in Nevada and the annual cowboy poetry festival out west. Read the NYTimes report from today’s paper, and get the NYT if you want more of this kind of reporting.