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
Land Circle: Writings Collected from the Land
FC 11 H-43
133
Linda M. Hasselstrom
George's Poem
required few words. Even dying, he kept it simple: "Be happy. Watch the sunsets."
Frost On The Fork Handle and Other Selected Verse
FC 11 G-25, 2 copies
25
Betty Lynne Grue
Thanks, Lord
I caught in my favorite little dun and rode up toward the peak, just to catch the final rays of sun and feel the wind upon my cheek.
thank, forget, ignored, ride, work
A Rancher's Writings
FC 11 S-07
24
Harold D. Sloan
The Boss
Sometimes you get a place to herd
Red Hills Malarky
FC 11 W-14
72
Sam Wilson
A March Birthday
Of all the months to be born in, I guess March could be the best.
Melodious Poems From the Hills
FC 11 B-58
13
Sandia Bill
When I Am Dead
When I am dead, don't cry for me; Just wrap me in a shroud And burn me, that the vapors may Help form some lovely cloud.
Original Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 S-25
25
Colen H. Sweeten Jr.
Cow on the Fight
This happens a lot to a cowman,
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
451
Hamlin Garland
Massasauga
A cold, coiled line of mottled lead.
hatred, deadly enemy, death
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
John A. Lomax
FC 11 L-12
350
The Deserted Adobe
Round the 'dobe rank sands are thickly blowin'.
Western Poems
FC 11 R-02
3
Col. Charles D. Randolph "Buckskin Bill"
The Girl of the Golden West
Here's to the girl of the golden west.
Cowboyology: The Science Of
FC 11 B-03
12
Dan Bradshaw
Daughters
Sprawled out in a corner stall; On a floor with straw fresh and clean, The newborn colt tries ta rise ta its feet; And wobbles and staggers and leans.
Buckaroo Ballads
FC 11 B-04
101
S. Omar Barker
The Female of the Species
It's a well-knowed fact in the range country.
women, male
Charles Badger Clark Poetry from The Pacific Monthly
FC 11 C-26
54
Charles Badger Clark
A Westerner
My fathers sleep o'er the sunrise plains; And each one sleeps alone.
Out Where the West Begins
FC 11 C-07
56
Arthur Chapman
The Blanket Injun
Jest a worthless blanket Injun.
Indians, attitude, turquoise, contentedness, reservation, way of life
May Darkness Restore
Sean Sexton
FOLK COLL 11 S-74
82
Sean Sexton
After Wang Wei
No old friends in these mountains where emptiness begets silence. What brightens mosses in the deeps lays eternal blue shadows on the peaks.
mountains, peaks, shadows
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
288
D. Maitland Bushby
Drifting
Out beyond the grasses growing.
desert winds, cholla, nature
Rimes of the Rockies
FC 11 M-48
15
Harrison R. Merrill
Deep in Thine Eyes, Dear
Deep in thine eyes, dear, deep, o, so deep!
hope of love
The Lonesome Cowboy Songs of the Plains and Hills
FC 11 W-20
36
John White and George Shackley
The Little Old Sod Shanty
I am looking rather seedy now while holding down my claim
Rhymes o' a Driftin' Cowboy
FC 11 H-01
100
Chuck Haas
Th' Dam' Thing
Funny, how some folks mind licker!
liquor, alcohol, locomotive, railroad, death, hit, drunk
May Darkness Restore
Sean Sexton
FOLK COLL 11 S-74
27
Sean Sexton
On the Peter Pan Bus Between Boston and New York
Love and happiness make for strange accommodations, yet amazing to me this morning is the attractive,
bus, bathroom, beauty
A Cow's Tail For a Compass; Cowboy Poetry and Short Stories
FC 11 F-17
180
Leon Flick
Satan And Jude
It was in the spring of '72; I'd just got out of school. I was young and tough and brawny. No kid for Sunday School. I decided'd I'd hit it out alone, the family was a fight. So I got a job a pitchin' hay, and on the "Ox Bow" I did light.
Singing Sioux Cowboy
FC 11 C-10
96
Ann Clark
To Market
My father drove some calves to market.
market, cattle sales, boots
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
John A. Lomax
FC 11 L-12
167
Little Joe, the Wrangler
It's little Joe, the wrangler, he'll wrangle never more.
Trail's End
FC 11 U-01
12
John Curtis Underwood
The Plaza
Motors weave their mazes around it
Prairie Poetry: Cowboy Verse of Kansas
Jim Hoy
FOLK COLL 11 H-62
28
Mike Logan
Ranch Girls
"Movin' cows is man's work!" I heard one young buck say. But Evelyn covered twice the ground He covered in a day.
gender, girls, work
Downwind O' Cows: A Collection of California Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 O-04
33
Chip O'Brien
Measured in Human Value
His lifeblood seeped through the hole in his chest
life, death, blood