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
Cowgirls: Women of the American West
FC 11 J-11
154
Teresa Jordan
Maggie Howell
Dry Crik Rview: Summer-Fall 1993
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
37
Jim DeWitt
Do Quarter Horses Ever Dream
of carrying cowboys on roundup dust swirling across plains and their being the main reason they're able to control cattle or if created appaloosa trekking saddlebags full-loaded with gear
loyalties, fantasies, sweet, reason
More Rhymes of a Ranch Hand
FC 11 L-06
49
Frank D. Lemon
That September Day, by Fred Hall
In the sweet gloom of this September day.
Cowboy Poetry: Rhymes, Reasons, and Pack Saddle Proverbs by Chris Isaacs
Janice Coggins
FC 11 I-02
193
Chis Isaacs
All Out
The reporters gathered around the Champ.
Where Cattle Roam
FC 11 S-15
19
Al Summers
A Range for Every Cowboy
There's a range for ev'ry cowboy
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee?s Songs of the Range
FC 11 P-17
18
Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee
Home in the West
I love the broad plains, all western domains
songs only
Cow Trails and Cowboy Tales
FC 11 A-18
8
Gary Anderson
The Test
This coffee here is so damned good, Will grow hair upon your chest. As the youngest and the newest hand, Was up to me to make the test. Shaking cup in hand, he filled it up
More Cow Country
FC 11 E-05
77
Tom Ellinwood
Livestock Included
His boss just bought that purebred bull.
cost, money, inflation, bull, purebred
The Land Where the Cowboy Grows
FC 11 H-36
10
Addie Viola Hudson
The Cowboy's Valentine
Can cowboy's love compete with those who write so grandly?
Cowboy: A Roundup of Verse
FC 11 C-17
28
J.T. Crozier
I Like It Out There
I like it out here where the wind blows fast.
silence, nature, prairie
From My Window and Other Poems
FC 11 H-48
49
Yvonne Hollenbeck
The Truth About: The Bra
I was working in the dress shop when a dude ccame in that day and we were quite amused at him, that's one thing I will say. It was about the strangest thing I think we'd ever saw when he told us he had come in there to buy his wife a bra.
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
208
Donna Penley
I Ain't Ridin' Sidesaddle!
Some folks jest don't relish life
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
212
Donna Penley
Tin Lizzie
Th' cowboy'd been on the range for a spell - decided he'd head into town.
Bunchgrass, Sage and Alkili
FC 11 K-34
103
E.J. Kirchoff
The Rattlesnake and the Wagon
"Rattlesnakes are somethin' I can do as well without. It ain't we're total strangers, 'cause I've met my share, no doubt. But there's no love lost between us. Not with rattlesnakes and me. And though some folks like to eat 'em, we just somehow don't agree.
Texas Poems By A Texan
FC 11 S-62
33
D.A. Stewart
Father
He was only a man of the common rank A laborer so to speak And he earned his bread by the sweat of his face With the summer's tan on his cheek He never complained but could always smile As very few motals can The life he lived was pure and clean In the sight of God and man.
Charles Badger Clark Poetry from The Pacific Monthly
FC 11 C-26
27
Charles Badger Clark
The Trail o' Love
My love was swift and slender; As an antelope at play.
Sawdust & Shavin's
FC 11 S-11
34
Shep Smith
Boomerang Blossoms
Look ye high and look ye low
Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-60
97
Rod Miller
Spring Works Sonnet
Scrub oak tangles on the slopes; only spots and specks of sunshine sneak in where the calf lies silent and lonely. Breaking branches become a buckskin
instinct, insecurity, taste, smoke, sift
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
126
Will Ogilvie
Off The Grass
They were boasting on the Greenhie of their nags of fancy breed, and stuffing them with bran and oats to run in Gumleaf Town,
horseflesh, lion, overweight, journey, honour
The Poetry of 'Breaker' Morant
FC 11 M-58
17
Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant
To a Silent Girl
When the skill'd fashioner of female faces Designed your mask, he wrought with cunning fist, And made a mouth expressly to be kiss'd-- Not for shrill utterance nor pert grimaces.
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
37
Peggy Godfrey
A Clear Definition
Story.
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
46
Peggy Godfrey
Hand Warner's Lucky Burro
Happened back east in Mohawk Valley Hank stopped for a bottle of pop Heard a fellow complaining About winning a burro His grousin' dragged on non-stop. "Five bucks!" Hank offered the griper T'was the best deal offered all day Hank loaded the burro In the car he was drivin' Named him "Lucky" and hauled him away.
Rhymes of the Range Land
FC 11 J-04
4
Bob Johnston
Cow Country
You are a hell of a way from any where.
wildlife, remote, lifestyle
Arizona Herstory: Tales from Her Storied Past
FC 11 J-13
231
Dee Strickland Johnson
"They'll Know Who I Am!"
We was down in Pleasant Valley.
Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion
Virginia Bennett
FC 11 B-33
68
Sally Harper Bates
Oh You Cowboys!
Oh you cowboys! You know you've lived the life!