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
Texas Poems By A Texan
FC 11 S-62
34
D.A. Stewart
Born on Friday
The cards are stacked against me In every game I play When stakes are high my luck is hard For an ace I get a tray They deal me clubs when spades are trumps Oh, Golly: what's the use? When one more queen would win the pot I always get a deuce.
Prairie Wife
FC 11 E-20
51
Elizabeth Ebert
New Age Cowboy
The seed-capped New Age cowboy Has an earring in his ear And drums and heavy metal Are all he cares to hear. Never sings about Joe the Wrangler Out riding Old Blue Rocket And his mount's a roaring ATV With a cell phone in his pocket.
Cactus Center Poems
FC 11 C-06
106
Arthur Chapman
The Hermit
He watches where the wild deer drink.
hermit
Cowboyology: The Science Of
FC 11 B-03
3
Dan Bradshaw
Buckin' Horses
You're breathin' just a little fast.
Saddle Up And R-i-i-i-d-e More Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 R-40
62
Jim Ross
The Bull And The Bear
Been a cowman all my livin', By chance I met Wall Street; I thought that feller peddling stock Was selling red steer meat.
Cowboy Poetry of David J. Bell and photographs of Dean T. Kunz
FC 11 B-48
7
David J. Ball
The Old Steers Stare
One day as by a pen I went I noticed the Veteran Bovine His time on earth nearly spent.
New Mexico in Verse
William Felter and John L. McCarty
FC 11 F-01
2
S. Omar Barker
Turned Tables
At home she cooks and sweeps and sews.
gender roles, husband, wife, work
Fair Girls and Gray Horses
FC 11 O-12
29
Will H. Ogilvie
Whisper Low
We have rowed together at even-fall Down the creek in the sunset glow, Under the vines and the box-trees tall That fringe the shores.
Legacy Of The Land
FC 11 B-72
12
Virginia Bennett
High Stakes
You have to be willing to risk it all beyond the point of caring. In one split second, you must dare with no thought of daring. In this play of horses,
death, skull, safest, nails
Ballads of the Plains
FC 11 S-39
17
Emily Eva Mullenger Sloan
Charlie and "Avalanche"
"Black Charlie's" purse was getting slim.
Cowgirl Poetry: One Hundred Years of Ridin' and Rhymin'
Virginia Bennett
FC 11 B-69
123
Terry Henderson
Stinky Tenant
I lived in a house a hundred years old on no foundation or blocks, no crawlway space for plumbing or heat. It perched on a few gatered rocks.
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
John A. Lomax
FC 11 L-12
108
Mississippi Girls
Come, all you Mississippi girls, and listen to my noise.
The Broncho Book
FC 11 C-13
77
Captain Jack Crawford
The Veteran and His Grandson
Hold on! Hold on! My goodness, you take my breath, my son.
war, veteran, epic
Pat Richardson, Unhobbled
FOLK COLL 11 R-50
64
Pat Richardson
Cowboy and the Waitress
The waitress asked the cowboy if he'd please remove his hat 'cause some lady had complained that she was shocked. "What is it that offends her?" asked the cowboy real polite, "Is it the hat, or just the way I got it blocked?"
waitress, manners, hospital
Buddy Ballads: Songs of the A.E.F. (1919)
FC 11 B-42
35
Berton Braley
Limberfingers
He wasn't so good with a rifle, he couldn't throw hand grenades much and when in a fight, though his nerve was all right, he got in the other men's way
Saddle Bag Wit and Wisdom
FC 11 T-17
23
Dave Tingey
Shorty
Shorty wasn't much of a cowboy when he started riding for the brand.
Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems
FC 11 M-45
83
Wallace McRae
Custer County
This is a land of grass and pine.
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
219
author unknown
The Trail to Mexico
It was in the merry month of May.
Texas, love, separation, kisses, caresses, A. J. Stinson, cattle drive, letter, roam, bullets, wealth, truth, honesty
Cowboy Meditations
FC 11 L-02
33
Wade Lane
I Wonder
Oh, lofty clouds o' western skies!
Ballads of the Book Cliffs
Frank A. Brewer and Frances Brewer Steiner
FC 11 B-18
51
Frank A. Brewer and Frances Brewer Steiner
Wild Horse Chasin'
Dad spotted a "wild bunch" on McCook.
wild horses, Bitter Creek, children, childhood, youth, boy, girl, father, family, close-call, rescue
The Song of the Hunter
FC 11 L-40
32
Robert L. Laumeyer
Myself at 51
Neigher old nor young It's a good age to be. From the passions of my youth I am now almost free. Now I can sit and think Many good times to recall. Life's been pretty good to me Somehow I lived it all.
Horseback in the Hills: A Collection of Cowboy Poetry & Photography
FC 11 P-22
8
Roy Pace
Stay Away, Please!
I get so damn mad that I could just cuss
Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-60
26
Rod Miller
Migrations
I hear them in the evening winging northward- their eager, maybe longing, kind of sound. It reminds me that we'll soon
calves, skies, echoes, urgent, cries
Rattle
Alan Fox
FC 11 R-36
119
Mikhail Horowitz
Wild Bill Hacker
Back when the info highway was still a dusty trail
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
111
Bob A. Carson
Tune of "Flying Trapeze"
I show'd the show boys in 1907.