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
Along Old Trails: Poems of New Mexico and Arizona
FC 11 S-06
78
William Haskell Simpson
Recuerdo
All the slow way to the last-good-bye place,
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
357
author unknown
The Dreary Black Hills
Now friends if you'll listen to a horrible tale.
Ayers' Patent Pills, Cheyenne, Comanche Bill, scalp, gold, loafers, beggars, orphan
The Song of the Hunter
FC 11 L-40
76
Robert L. Laumeyer
Youth and Death
In the minds of the young It is only the old that die. The spring of life Is flowers, trees and sky. Youth is the creek in spring Teeming with life. It's a girl to kiss, Not children and wife. Its a life well started
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
John A. Lomax
FC 11 L-12
121
The Crooked Trail to Holbrook
Come all you jolly cowboys that follow the bronco steer.
Between The Fences
FC 11 D-25
41
Danny W. Dutton
Cold-Backed Roan
You ride ol' Blue And I'll ride ol' Roany Don't matter to me What color my pony
Canyon of the Forgotten
FC 11 B-60
73
Virginia Bennett
Visitation
Awakened from a blissful dream, Where you ran strong and fine, I rub my eyes and sit up in bed, Relishing the extra- sensory presence of you
Loose Cow Party
FC 11 B-67
4
Baxter Black
Loose Cowboy
"It's for you," his darlin' told him as he lay back in the chair For a well deserved siesta. Ugh, it wasn't really fair.
Arizona Born
FOLK COLL 11 C-62
39
Dean Cook
High Country Song
Sometimes by a campfire, in the country I love, with the evening breeze rising in the trees up above, I sit drinking coffee, while the sun's going down, and try to remember why I moved to town.
nature, respect, value
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
102
Paul Thomas Lillard
Humpty-Dumpty
Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall. He was an egg, you know, but he got careless and he fell, striking the ground below.
egg, omelet, rhyme
Burnt Leather
FC 11 H-16
63
Jack Horan
A Cowboy's Dream
Your old cayuse is turned to graze.
home, camp, girlfriend, memories, thoughts, dreams
Trail Dust
FC 11 K-32
13
E.J. Kirchoff
Wasn't broke to Lead
This old cow was plenty wild. Missed the roundup several years. Been a while since her last calves had been altered into steers. With no calves to raise she's packin' plenty tallow on her bones. " Now I sure would like to peddle that ol' cow," says Smokey Jones.
Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women
Teresa Jordan
FC 11 J-10
145
Myrt Wallis
Thaw
The south slope; Bares it's breast.
Poetry of Ranch Women
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
63
Banjo Paterson
How Gilbert Died
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
83
Richard Dunlap
Waiting for the Pear to Fall
Like a silent the sentinel on a lonely hill.
Fair Girls and Gray Horses
FC 11 O-12
174
Will H. Ogilvie
Absent Friends
"Absent Friends!" There are brought to our mind again The scent of the buddah-bush after the rain; The dawn inthe eastward, the death of the stars, The wet grass that reaches the cold stirrup bars;
The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing
Guy Logsdon
FOLK COLL 11 L-46
102
Curley W. Fletcher
Wild Buckaroo
I've been ridin' for cattle most all of my life; I ain't got no fam'ly and I ain't got no wife; I ain't got to kith and I ain't got no kin; I never did finish and I never did begin.
boasting, pride, prowess, sex
Sharing the Journey
FC 11 R-30
24
Norman Edward Rourke
Sheriff Babcock
Chaves County sheriff.
Easterner, Pecos Valley, star, six-gun, Roswell, New Mexico, West, protected
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
534
Harry McClintock
The Big Rock Candy Mountains, I
One summer day in the month of May.
jocker, Hoosier, bum, cigarette, hike
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
26
Bob A. Carson
The Hay and Grain Man
The hay-man is a peaceful man.
feeding livestock, patience
Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems
FC 11 M-45
92
Wallace McRae
Definitions of Poor
We was dirt poor in the thirties and forties.
Rimes of the Rockies
FC 11 M-48
40
Harrison R. Merrill
Hurrah For the Fourth
Hurrah for the Fourth with its rattle and bang.
Liberty Bell, Forefathers, Star Spangled Banner, Stars and the Stripes, Old Glory, war
Thoughts in Rhyme: Volume II
FC 11 M-10
23
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Our Son, Jay
Our youngest son, namely Jay, is now in Junior High.
Where the Wind Lives: Poems from the Great Basin
FC 11 H-31
7
Linda Hussa
I Fix the Fence - The Fence Fixes Me
The fence I patched ran away rolled a week ahead.
Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet
FC 11 B-47
197
Baxter Black
The Move
Yesterday's Trails
FC 11 N-07
48
Howard L. Norskog
Prayer of a Cowboy
If there's a story to tell, then let's tell it of the wind blowing down from the hills and the truth that's inspired by your giving up here in a world ever still