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
Buckaroo Ballads
FC 11 B-04
80
S. Omar Barker
When Sunset Slim Rode Satan
Oh, Sunset Slim he rides today, On sorrel Satan, so they say.
girlfriend, marriage, jealousy, broncriding, bronco, bronc busting
Bitterbrush Country: Living on the Edge of the Land
FC 11 P-31
112
Diane Josephy Peavy
Terrorism Tamed
Poems from Dry Creek
John Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-15
47
Old Speck
I think we know the answer despite our concern for life--for the living, despite how we parade our compassion keeping the sickly and weak alive in hells of our making.
Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-60
134
Linda M. Hasselstrom
Make a Hand
"Make a hand!" my father hollered when my friends came down to visit. Almost everyone I knew would come to help us,
iron, gender, casket, garbage, loan, ranch
Bell-Bottoms to Boots
FC 11 W-07
15
Joe "Blackie" Wilson
Sweet Texas
I have wandered far to the rainbow ends that are
Cowboy Poetry: Tracks That Won't Blow Out
FC 11 O-10
122
Ray Owens
January Roses
Red roses mean I love you, he'd always heard 'em say That's why he'd parked his pick-up at the flower shop that day It was deep in January, and roses weren't in season But prices and the time of year
Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women
Teresa Jordan
FC 11 J-10
97
Margot Liberty
Rain Prayer
For so long, we've longed for rain.
Poetry of Ranch Women
75 Years! My Time In Rhyme
FC 11 M-65
127
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Today
Today I'm going to try to curb, my every single thought; Try real hard to remember, the things that I was taught. Be honest, sincere, friendly, sympathetic, kind and good; And maybe give a helping hand, just like a neighbor should.
I'm going to watch my every word, and
The Trouble with Dreams
FC 11 Q-01
26
Vess Quinlan
The beekeeper
Did I know worker bees only live for twenty one days; that man cannot duplicate beeswax;
Poems from Dry Creek
John Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-15
35
Autumn
Days shorter, alfalfa in the barn, babies waiting to be born as the full moon wanes.
porse
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
114
Henry Lawson
A Voice from the City
On Western plain and eastern hill.
One Hundred Poems
Waddie Mitchell
FOLK COLL 11 M-73
107
Waddie Mitchell
Morning Soliloquy
Well, it's time to get up, I reckon The new day will soon arrive I'll get some coffee in me An' then maybe I'll revive
breakfast, morning, sore
Thoughts in Rhyme: Volume II
FC 11 M-10
5
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Making a Marriage Work
When you live with a woman, for twenty some years.
The Night That Acey Deucy Bit the Bear: Poetry from the Hunewill Ranch
Ken Gardner
FC 11 G-26
57
Rocky Howard
Two Little Pigs
Two little pigs to the market went.
sold, sausage, bacon
Where Prairie Flowers Bloom And Other Poems
FC 11 H-33
10
Yvonne Hollenbeck
The Auction Sale
After sixty years of marriage, our neighbor passed away.
harness, nets, hames, bidding, ranch, friendship
New Mexico in Verse
William Felter and John L. McCarty
FC 11 F-01
51
Carey Holbrook
The Squeak of the Saddle Girth
I warble a lay to a drowsy day.
saddle, song, sing, riding
Bygone Days of the Old West
FC 11 L-01
144
Fred Lambert
Rocky Mountain Candy
Sometimes I get to thinkin'; Thet they mebbe made yuh wrong.
Stubby Pencil Poems of Great Basin Musin's
n/a
FOLK COLL 11 G-45
18
G. B. Griffith
The Gelding and the Farrier
He was still locked in the paddock; it was late, half past eight. Something was up, his halter was on, he knew it couldn't be good.
gelding, hooves, farrier
Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat
FC 11 Z-03
81
Paul Zarzyski
Potatoes
Unless they've been cladestinely launched whole into orbit as a satellite welcome wagon gunnysack toward alien good will,
Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose
FC 11 W-38
15
Donald L. Welter
Just Musing
When I was just a little boy, there's a dream, I always had. Of a ranch, up in the mountains, with some fishing, for a lad.
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
161
Charles Graham Halpine
Dolce Far Niente
My friend, mychum, my trusty crony!
Western Poems
FC 11 R-02
46
Col. Charles D. Randolph "Buckskin Bill"
The North
The North is where there's ice and scow.
The Adventures of Ole and Andy
FOLK COLL 11 A-26
56
Clarence "Andy" Anderson
Ole and Paul Bunyan Woo a Princess
Yes, Ole and Paul Bunyan were bosom friends long ago. They were building OXBOWS on the Missouri River. Those graceful curves, you know.
princess, oxbow, missouri, flirt
Musings from Cowboy Country
FOLK COLL 11 R-46
66
George Rhoades
Justice and Politics
Justice is blind, they say, And politics makes strange Bedfellows
politics, justice