Ken Gardner, after retiring from his day job, decided to try his hand and vocal chords at a poetic pursuit evocative of the Old West.The Genoa resident, a retired physician who spent much of his career in academic medicine, has enjoyed cowboy poetry since his youth. He is a practitioner these days, both writing and presenting it. Gardner recalls a day in 2000 at Elko’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering when Baxter Black, famous in the genre, heard Gardner during a small open mic performance. Black persuaded him to open Black’s big afternoon show before an audience of nearly 900. “Therefore, …