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
Cowboy Poetry: Turning to Face the Wind
FC 11 M-50
158
Jane Ambrose Morton
Colorado Rivers
Sagebrush Classics: Pure Wyoming 'Stuph'
Betsy Bernfeld
FC 11 B-53
Up Sims Creek, The Third Trip
FOLK COLL 11 N-18
134
Rod Nelson
Remembering Gordon Olson - a guy you could talk to
Waves of regret washed over me as I sat in the pew at Gordon Olson's funeral. Why hadn't I found the time to visit with him more often? As a PhD and president of a university for 25 years he was my kind of guy. Maybe I should clarify that a bit.
friendly, veteran, professor, funeral
Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-59
155
S. Omar Barker
Watchin' Him Drink
When you ride a horse to water, slack the reins and let him drink, you can learn a heap about him that you maybe might not think.
prize, iron, pool, lazy, dumb
Poems Mostly Cowboy
FC 11 N-16
8
Dick Nichols
A Retired Cowboy
I've got to get my work caught up Well at least I'll do my best, I'll likely get a start tomorrow But right now, I need some rest.
It's Just Grass and Water: Poems
FC 11 M-07
17
Wallace McRae
Pest Test
The Lord in His great wisdom.
Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems
FC 11 M-45
129
Wallace McRae
Rodeo
Here we go, to the rodeo.
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
79
Bob A. Carson
Boasted Wife
The wife I had, as a wife she ain't.
Western Travels and Other Rhymes
FC 11 G-27
112
Lysius Gough
Acrostics
May you be happy and firm in your will.
Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering
Hal Cannon
FC 11 C-14
100
Bob Schild
The Kid Solos
Me, the kid, and some other boys was playin' a hand of cards.
The Columbine Remembers
Anna Bowie May
FC 11 M-26
70
Frances May
Don't Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate
One's life is like a computer card
Melodious Poems From the Hills
FC 11 B-58
59
Sandia Bill
A Summer Night
The day with all its labor Has vanished out of sight, And the scenes that still linger Have put my cares to flight.
Arizona Herstory: Tales from Her Storied Past
FC 11 J-13
138
Dee Strickland Johnson
Cowboy Preacher
The gunmen were a-gunnin' for the preacher.
shots, lead, holes
Seventy Years in the Saddle
A. B. Melton
FC 11 M-52
92
Myrtle Page Fillmore
untitlted
Peace like a river it floweth so free, out from the heart of infinity, O, blessed spirit, it floweth for thee Peace like a river, peace like a river
Pardners
FC 11 C-18
2
Jo Casteel
My Dad and I
My Dad he says I'm growin', and a fine man I soon'll be.
father, son, values, childhood, children, heritage, family, teaching
A Bronco Pegasus
FC 11 L-14
20
Charles F. Lummis
To a Common Thief
Fie, pale Sir, with perfidious Faber
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
471
William Haskel Simpson
Yucca is Yellowing
Yucca is yellowing.
cactus, crimson, beauty, sunset
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
161
Will Ogilvie
The Ballad Of Devil-May-Care
Well known on the Border; tall, handsome and straight; A reckless hard-liver, but true-hearted mate; What his name was I'm not in position to swear, but we called him-it suited him-Devil-May-Care!
death, sun, armful, careless, gay, roses
May Darkness Restore
Sean Sexton
FOLK COLL 11 S-74
69
Sean Sexton
On the Path
The eye is a foot on the path that scales the tangle of smilax, grapevine, and wild honeysuckle, does so unscathed by shards of the shattered mirror flung to the foilage from the bright morning.
pathway, wildflowers, sight
Coolin' Down: An Anthology of Contemporary Cowboy Poetry
Phil Martin
FC 11 M-53
56
Larry McWhorter
Cowboy Count Your Blessings
Two waddies rode together o'er the western half so great, a buckeroo from Utah and a hand from the Lone Star State.
JB The Circle
Duward Campbell and Chuck Milner
FC 11 A-17
40
Jayson Jones
I think I was about eighteen or nineteen the first time I ever worked with J.B. I was still pretty green, and he was the first one to let me know just how green I was.
tribute to J.B. Allen
Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat
FC 11 Z-03
34
Paul Zarzyski
Equine Houdini
Medieval torture chamber grate of pipe crosshatched with angle iron spiked with ring-shanks to stringers
Cow Country
FC 11 E-04
91
Tom Ellinwood
Yanqui Menudo
Each time a beef is butchered out.
stew, butcher, meat, food
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
77
author unknown
Merry Christmas
In the rush of the merry morning,
Cattle, Horses, Sky, and Grass
Warren Miller
FC 11 C-35
140
J.B. Allen
Alchemists
Renie was different, A spawn of the plains.