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
Scattered, Lasting Remnants: "Fine Lines" of Poetry and Song
Echo Klaproth
FC 11 K-25
33
Howard Norskog
There's not a whole lot I have left here the land it took all that I made but I've seen no life out behind me that I would have taken in trade. (from "Lonesome John"). Buck him down easy Lord, buck him on down. Remember dear Father, he's only a man. (from "Buck Me Down Easy").
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
41
Peggy Godfrey
Daisy's Pups
Story.
Blazin' Bloats and Cows on Fire
FC 11 B-56
106
Baxter Black
Kelly's Halloween
It was a bad day at Black Rock that fateful Halloween.
Crazy Quilt: A Patchwork of New and Collected Poems
FC 11 E-21
118
Elizabeth Ebert
Free Verse--Untitled
Somehow I always envisioned that my life would be different after I passed seventy. I would sit sedately in a blue velvet chair, Sip tea from a thin china cup.
Orejana Bull: For Cowboys Only
FC 11 G-16
21
Gail I. Gardner
To Delia, 1950
I still can dig a noble ditch.
aging, fifty, age, chores, work, health, birthday, fiftieth
Rhymes o' a Driftin' Cowboy
FC 11 H-01
98
Chuck Haas
`Til Skies Start A-Smilin'
It's Indian summer...sun's warmish, but "thin."
roundup, herding, autumn, fall, seasons, work,
Ballads of the Poison Oak
FC 11 K-18
14
Jack Killam
The Wheels of Progress
Seems we block the wheels of progress, And make this life a little .curse.
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
109
author unknown
Hell in Texas
The devil, we're told, in hell was chained.
prison, Rio Grande, poor land, thorns, fleas, tarantulas, centipede, rattlesnake, scorpion, mosquito, poison, heat, red pepper, Mexican, hot food
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
536
The Big Rock Candy Mountains, II
One evening as the sun went down.
hobo
The Best of Robert Service
FOLK COLL 11 S-77
1
Robert Service
The Spell of the Yukon
I wanted the gold, and I sought it; I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. Was it famine or scurvy - I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave.
gold, yukon, wilderness
A Cowboy on the Last Frontier
FC 11 M-24
81
Bill May
Side by Side
If memories all were horses, we'd ride forever more
marriage, family, wife
Songs of the Saddlemen
FC 11 B-06
82
S. Omar Barker
Cow Country Saying
The less words a wise jasper uses.
Western Verse or Worse
FC 11 F-10
54
Rolf M. Flake
The Forces of Nature
Gravity holds the world together.
gravity, gravy
Humorous Cowboy Poety: A Knee Slappin Gathering
Dawn Valentine Hadlock and Madge Baird, editors
FC 11 H-42
154
Marie W. Smith
The dance
I asked this crusty cowboy how he had met his future wife, and he settled with eyes a-twinkling to tell me something of his life.
Time Not Measured by a Clock: Cowboy Poetry from the life of a Cowboy Wife
FC 11 J-14
108
Carole Jarvis
Thanks For the Rain
I turned my eyes toward cloudless skies.
scent, sign, thunder, plain, water tanks, mud holes, dry, wither, dust, lightning, thunder, moisture, life
American Cowboy Songs
Robbins Music Corporation
FC 11 A-02
74
Sweet Betsy from Pike
Oh don't you remember Sweet Betsy from Pike.
Platte, yeller dawg, Pike County
Sawdust & Shavin's
FC 11 S-11
17
Shep Smith
Shiver Sliver No. 1
Never been exactly shore,
Intermountain Folk: Songs of Their Days & Ways
FC 11 S-04
83
E. Richard Shipp
The Sentence
Within the walls -
Cowboy and Other Poetry: Thoughts by Men Who Have Mashed Their Fingers
FC 11 T-16
15
Jim Tanner
Gentleness on the Plains
But no, some fellow came out from the east.
Rhymes o' a Driftin' Cowboy
FC 11 H-01
59
Chuck Haas
Gladly
I mind when I wuz young an' roamed.
Arizona, home, aging, old age, dying
Exchanging Courtesies
FC 11 S-57
21
Marie W. Smith
The Eternal Optimist
Since December twenty-first, we've been headin' straight for spring,
Cowboy Meditations
FC 11 L-02
53
Wade Lane
Roll On
Look out o'er the western horizon to the settin' sun.
New Cowboy Poetry: A Contemporary Gathering
Hal Cannon
FC 11 C-30
99
Buck Ramsey
Anthem
And in the morning I was riding.
Echoes Of The Dawn
FC 11 B-63
17
Belvina W. Bertino
Ranch Garden
Hoeing in the garden is joy On a breezy, sunlit morn With brigh-winged birds a-singing To their babes so newly born.
Singing Cowboy: A Book of Western Songs
Margaret Larkin
FC 11 L-03
69
Walking John
Now Walking John was a big rope hoss, From over Morongo way.