FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection
Folk Coll 11 is Utah State University's cowboy poetry collection. The collection, originally created
by a generation donation by the L. J. and Mary Skaggs Foundation, includes books gathered
during a fieldwork project in the early 1980s to document cowboy poetry in the U.S. west (see Folk
Coll 11f). From this important fieldwork project came the impetus for the first Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in
January 1985 in Elko, Nevada. Since that time, each January, the Fife Folklore Archives staff take the collection
and Access database (that details each book, poem, author, first line and key words), to the National Cowboy Poetry
Gathering for offsite use. Through University purchases and generation donations from poets and collectors, this collection continues to grow.
Book Title
Composer
Call #
Pages
Author
Poem Title
First Lines
Keywords
Pioneer Poetry and Prose
FC 11 S-67
43
Rhoda Cosgrave Sivell
They keep a=stealing on you in the night
When you think you have forgotten, and they have lived the feelings down
Western Poetry: In this land of little rain
FC 11 M-56
61
Jane Ambrose Morton
Seein' Santa
I think that hyperthermia thing must be a setting in.
Charlie Russell painting
Bell Ranch Glimpses
FC 11 E-01
138
Martha Downer Ellis
These Items
Don't tell me I must have made them up.
land
Good Clean Fun
FC 11 N-09
12
Rod Nelson
Modern-Day Superwoman
My father-in-law has many virtues.
Where Old Trails Meet the New on Oregon High Desert
Ramona Turmon and Lona Tankersley Burkhart
FC 11 T-12
59
Lona Tankersley Burkhart
The Late Snow
Damn, it's snowin' again
West of East
FC 11 H-17
119
Harry Elmore Hurd
Lincoln
I snow shoed down the hemlock trail.
Abraham Lincoln, president, country, influence, politics, February
Dry Crik Rview: Spring 1993
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
30
Art Coelho
A New Pilgrim's Hymn
America has enough faces to fill a cosmic cowboy hat, and that endless wild rose blooming across Colorado -- that Montana blizzard killing calves at sixty below.
Navajo, pride, patrols, degrees, future, vision
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
73
Paul Thomas Lillard
Word to the Wise
Someone shoulda' told Bonaparte, "Change your mind, sir, before you start. Because the thought to me occurs they may not care for visitors.
russia, napoleon, invade
Sensin' Somethin'
FC 11 D-19
49
John C. Dofflemyer
signs
i've looked for signs of comin' rain on dusty slopes of steep terrain and find the drought has crept inside and to my brain and through my hide
Voices and Visions of the American West
Barney Nelson
FC 11 N-04
9
Duane Reece
Cowboy Sign
With the study of pages, written down through the ages.
history, society, variety, art, tears, cowhand
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
232
Reeve Spencer Kelley
Serous Spring
Spring is the fluid.
Dry Crik Review (Elko Commemorative Double Issue): winter/spring 1994, 2 copies
John C. Dofflemyre
FC 11 D-20
45
Paul Zarzyski
I Am Not A Cowboy
beause cowboys don't cry and I can't fight back my 4-H'er greenhorn rapture while watching Cody foal--no white socks up front, a blaze face breaking through the giant dew--drop into the 10:15 a.m. sun, two hind socks stretched side-by-side in the dirt like reverse white-on-black exclamation marks, and yup "it's a filly!!"
Night Herding Song
FC 11 H-10
49
Gerald Hausman
Clearing Trails
Rain stopped us, we three.
waiting, horses, horse, weather
Rimes of the Rockies
FC 11 M-48
43a
Harrison R. Merrill
Spring's Awakening
When Spring her banners spread on high.
hues of spring, perfumes, blossoms
Famous Cowboy and Mountain Ballads
FC 11 F-23
20
Little Annie Rooney
A winning way, a pleasant smile, dress'd so neat but quite in style
Fair Girls and Gray Horses
FC 11 O-12
123
Will H. Ogilvie
The Silent Squadron
Down the long dream-lanes At the dead of night, With gray mists over and mists below, With loose-held reins On their horses white I watch where the silent riders go
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
25
Arnold "Buzz" Benson
There's No Romance in Ranchin'
There's no romance in ranchin', oh ye city snob.
I Was Raised In A Barn
FC 11 B-64
15
Mary Borm
The Test
Who left the freezer open? Just who do we blame for this? What happened to those scientists, And their analysis?
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
299
John H. Yates
The Model Church
Well, wife, I've found the model church! I worshipped there
Western Poems
FC 11 R-02
42
Col. Charles D. Randolph "Buckskin Bill"
When the World Looks Dark
When your all out of sorts.
More Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse
FC 11 R-13
5
Bob Ross
Potted Saguaro
This photographer's apparition
On the Edge of Common Sense
FC 11 B-12
95
Baxter Black
A Time to Stay, a Time to Go
Ya know, I got this ranch from my daddy.
1917,work, settle, percheron, horse team, 1950, marriage, memories, home, family, life, change, trinkets, mementos, leaving, sell, selling out, attic, dad
Ranch Reveries
FC 11 H-21
27
Oscar Herem
Medicine Man's Recipe for a Happy Birthday
We tried to send you smoke signal, but somehow didn't work too well.
Indian, birthday cake
Along Old Trails: Poems of New Mexico and Arizona
FC 11 S-06
6
William Haskell Simpson
Don Feliciano Garcia
I, From the hills, Truchas way, driving three burros with pinyon loads,
Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse
FC 11 R-11
43
Bob Ross
Privacy--Who Needs it?
We weren't much for frilly flares