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
Bygone Days of the Old West
FC 11 L-01
284
Fred Lambert
The Trail
Through the dreary sage and cactus that was lonelier than hell.
"Pull Your Hat Down and Come-a-Ridin'!": Photos and Ridin' Rhymes
FC 11 K-14
28
Gayle S. Klein
"Camp Jack"
Most cowboys need a little grub now and again, To help 'em hay and face the North wind.
The Sunlight Kid and Other Western Verses
FC 11 S-09
98
Lawrence B. Smith
Biscuit Chokin'
Hello, stranger! What's that you say?
More Rhymes of a Ranch Hand
FC 11 L-06
56
Frank D. Lemon
The Wanderer's Prayer
Our Father, Whose gentle voice, I wish to hear.
The Five Stages of Quitting Farming
John William Kulm
FOLK COLL 11 K-36
40
John William Kulm
I Wish I Was Smart Like Alan Greenspan
I wish I wish I wish I was smart like Alan Greenspan able to see into the future... using math to calculate the endless lines of cause and effect like a Hindu lama tracing the twisted consequences of an economic karma;
intelligence, wealth, money
Bygone Days of the Old West
FC 11 L-01
346
Fred Lambert
Cowboy Taps
I'm ridin' west on a trail alone -- On a trail that's dim and a trail unknown.
Canyon of the Forgotten
FC 11 B-60
31
Virginia Bennett
All That is Left
At the mouth of a redrock canyon, near the base of a sandstone cliff, She stands there, a skeleton ssentinel, with branches arthritic and stiff.
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Henry Herbert Knibbs
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-23
36
Henry Herbert Knibbs
The Reata
Fernando slowly plaited close the long, strong rawhide strands.
Tangled Up In The West
FC 11 H-50
15
David Haskell
Amerco's Shovel
I meet Amerco at the San Jose airport. We were smoking squirrels on public land. All day we worked next to the bean fields. A young buck and this old ranch hand.
Time Not Measured by a Clock: Cowboy Poetry from the life of a Cowboy Wife
FC 11 J-14
29
Carole Jarvis
Catch
Well, I finally put the old horse out to pasture.
lame, cow, outfit, auction, foal, stud, mare, herd, cowboy, strays
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
388
author unknown
Guilty, or not Guilty
She stood at the bar of justice,
Up North is Down the Crick
FC 11 M-17
27
Wallace McRae
The Mail
We got this problem - sorting mail. Which to throw, and what to keep.
read,laters, tattered, heap, lists, recipes, scrap, need
Somewhere in the West: Texas Women Who Left a Legacy
FC 11 K-22
151
Linda Kirkpatrick
The Cuttin' Chute
As the cowboy works the cuttin' gate; There's a few things he's gotta know.
Night Herding Song
FC 11 H-10
41
Gerald Hausman
Burls
Maple burls like rounded knots of rope.
trees
Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 S-20
54
Colen H. Sweeten Jr.
The Way He Walks
Have you ever noticed a cowboy walk
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
153
An Old Rhyme
I dare not ask a kiss
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
113
author unknown
Winter
Where are the flowers? where the leaves?
A Medley of Wilderness and Other Poems
FC 11 B-01
19
Elliott S. Barker
Paradoxical Accessory
It's just a lovely lady's bra, It never yet has broke the law.
humor, wearing apparel, clothing, female, feminine, woman, women, breast, knockers, bosom, boobs
Write Tough!
FC 11 G-35
62
Peggy Godfrey
My Home Sweet Home, Moffat, CO
The letter stated bluntly That wildlife needs a boost Their organizationial goal is: take a stand. "We'll use your money wisely So wolves and salmon thrive And change the laws that govern public land.
Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-60
55
Curley Fletcher
The Sheepherders Lament
I have summered in the tropics, with the yellow fever chill; I have been down with the scurvy; I've had every ache and ill. I have wintered in the Arctic,
chinese, patience, misery, Spanish
Where Old Trails Meet the New on Oregon High Desert
Ramona Turmon and Lona Tankersley Burkhart
FC 11 T-12
23
Lona Tankersley Burkhart
Honor and a Cowman's Word
Now, in the great southwestern cattle land./ There's something the people all understand
West Word Ho! The western poetry of Doris Daley
FC 11 D-23
78
Doris Daley
Light The Way Home
The road is long, the trail is steep The hills are dark and high. The evening light begins to seep And velvet is the sky.
Breezy Western Verse
FC 11 A-11
68
James Barton Adams
Coroner's Inquest at Squawville
Wasn't none of us denied it that we played a leadin' hand.
Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-59
3
C.J. Hadley
Site and Sound
prose
Cow Country
FC 11 E-04
16
Tom Ellinwood
The Compensators
It's taking over lots of range.
mesquite, wood, fencing