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.
Here is a sampling of 25 records from the database of 29769. (View All)
Book Title
Composer
Call #
Pages
Author
Poem Title
First Lines
Keywords
Tumble Weed: A Collection of Verse
FC 11 J-02
41
Jim Jennings
Sunset Dreams
`Member how we used to sit here.
love lost, wife, lonely, lonesome, longing, alone
The Trouble with Dreams
FC 11 Q-01
21
Vess Quinlan
My new neighbor's penci
Stubby and yellow with bits of wood
banker
Lyrics of the Lariat
FC 11 G-10
49
Nathan Kirk Griggs
Sabbath Morn
Like scenes of youth, to the wand'rin gone.
Sunday, belief
Trail Mix: Cowboy Language, Lingo, Poetry & Recipes
FC 11 T-18
15
unknown
untitled
One night I had a wondrous dream, one set of footprints there was seen. . . . And there dropped you on your butt . . . . When one must rise and take a stand, or leave their butt prints in the sand.
Parody on Footprints in the sand poem.
Tails of the West
FC 11 M-44
19
Frank "Two Jump" Morris
Fall of the Cowboy
The horse moving across the copper green mesa stopped.
Cowgirl Poetry: One Hundred Years of Ridin' and Rhymin'
Virginia Bennett
FC 11 B-69
44
Sharlot Hall
Wild Morning Glories
Once in a wind-swept, sunburned land Where long, rought hills come crawling down, Crowding the little valley hard With buttes like paws, rock-clawed and brown
Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 D-26
12
Gale Drewry
Old Babes Runaway
A long time ago when I was just a kid We drove a horse and cart to school like most kids did But this day would be different riding in that old cart A passing gas truck gave old Babe a sudden start
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
77
Bob Christensen
The New Stain
It was getting close to roundup in the autumn of the year so the parson staged a social, he even barbecued a steer. Ever body was invited, even summer haying crews and he fed them 'till they foundered but he drew the line with booze.
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950)
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-21
105
Bruce Kiskaddon
Looking Backward
Do you recollect that country that you knew in days gone by?
Tails of the West
FC 11 M-44
11
Frank "Two Jump" Morris
Bull Ridin'
Ridin' bulls is a fool's occupation./ Asides from the obvious dangers and hazards,
Rhymes Along the Way
FC 11 L-39
16
Robert L. Laumeyer
Poet's "Advice"
Know you're human, thus subject to error. Be humble enough that to "self" you are fair.
JB The Circle
Duward Campbell and Chuck Milner
FC 11 A-17
78
J.B. Allen
The Golden Rake
A cowboy will--at sundry times decided to mend his ways
Backtracks Through the High, Wide and Lonesome
FC 11 A-20
71
G.M. Atwater
The Way That It Was
Do you remember the way that it was, out there; the breeze at the top of the hill, all scented with safebrush and pinion; the valleys so breathlessly still, the rumbling hooves of the cavvy
empty, diesel, critter, blazing, health, strong, dream
Cowboy Poetry: Horse Tracks Through The Sage
FC 11 H-47
188
Jesse Smith
The Holiday Blues
Old Cookie's ringin' that old cracked dinner bell. That old man as a cook's about the best. I guess I'd better get busy and wash If I want to eat with the rest. It's early but it's already startin' to freeze This mornin' was seven below. And the radio says that a storm's on the way, And there's no doubt we'll get snow.
Songs of the Workaday World
FC 11 B-54
121
Berton Braley
The Pumpman (As the Miner Sees Him)
Nothin' to do but to set around, Loafin' a shift away,
Saddle Songs: A Cowboy Songbag
Don Edwards
FC 11 E-19
131
Curley Fletcher
Meditation
The soft wind sways the whispering grass; The sun sinks low o'er the western pass As a coyote mingles his dismal howl With the sad, sweet notes of a lone hoot owl.
The Ballad of Gutless Ditch
FC 11 L-36
65
Katie Lee
Kinkade & Sons (Summer 1908)
Twenty years have slipped way, yet none in Gutless, to this day nor in the miles of country 'round, can say Why Satan's gut caved in its walls.
Get Down and Come In: Poetry by Jim Ross
FC 11 R-20
1
Jim Ross
Wild Rose
You need but have a conscience
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
194
Banjo Paterson
An Answer to Various Bards
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
49
Bob Christensen
The Favor
I first met him in a feed store, we kind of hit it off. He was bent and kind of weathered and had a nagging cough. He seemed to look right through you, he had that kind of stare. His hands were gnarled and twisted like he'd shook hands with a bear.
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
43
Peggy Godfrey
Turnabout
There's always been enigma Around this subject: gender To vastly simplify mystique We'll call it tough and tender. In the early years of life when times got really rough. I wanted to be the tender and let you be the tough.
Night Herding Song
FC 11 H-10
28
Gerald Hausman
Breath
Behind the horse shed.
horses, winter
A Collection of The Cowboy Poems of Tex West
FC 11 D-24
20
Alvin G. Davis
Changing Jobs
Of all the things to make a living There's one I never wanted to be. On my list of desirable occupations, Preaching is last on a scale of A to Z.
Rhymes Along the Way
FC 11 L-39
51
Robert L. Laumeyer
My Mother's Day Prayer
I thank you, God, for the mother you gave. Free her spirit forever from her grave. Be as good to her as she was to me, and she'll be happy through eternity.
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
268
Karle Wilson Baker
Box-Car Letters
Alone on the hill where the sun goes down.