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
Cowboy Poetry: Turning to Face the Wind
FC 11 M-50
59
Jane Ambrose Morton
Precious Gems
West of East
FC 11 H-17
24
Harry Elmore Hurd
Goshawk
Beat, beat, beat.
bird, hawk, prey, nature, wildlife
Where Prairie Flowers Bloom And Other Poems
FC 11 H-33
26
Yvonne Hollenbeck
Waiting There at Sunset
She'd watch each night at sunset.
washout, alone
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Henry Herbert Knibbs
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-23
38
Henry Herbert Knibbs
Benny Benito
Who found him encountered a rugged decline, To a far, sunny valley, and fronting his field.
Wind Songs
FC 11 R-43
42
Norman Edward Rourke
Winter
November cold has come by rain, And brought its damp chill in the night, As the grayday shudders a bit, Trees shed their leaves for brittle
Prairie Poetry: Cowboy Verse of Kansas
Jim Hoy
FOLK COLL 11 H-62
66
Tom McBeth
Babies
She always arrived in the BMW slim, thirtyish, then went to catch Baby, sixteen hands, long underline, muscled, well proportioned, flat-boned and roan.
sadness, hope, love, baby
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
4
Banjo Paterson
Old Pardon, the Son of Reprieve
Brush Poppers: Original Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 P-38
73
Dale Page
Just One More Day
On a wooden bench on the courthouse lawn, Where the old men spit and whittle, Sits a youthful pair like two bookends there For their elder in the middle.
Chisholm Trail, train, steer, kiss
Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory
FC 11 G-44
99
DW Groethe
Two Cowpokes and a Tamper
They came upon a fencepost, a tamper leanin' on it, an' pondered on the world of fencin' arts. "Ev'r worked them things?," the other quipped, "the darn thing's got too many workin' parts."
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
261
Henry Lawson
When There's Trouble on Your Mind
Now I do not want to bore you, or to take up too much time.
Ranch Verses
FC 11 C-09
22
William Lawrence Chittenden
The Ranchman's Letter
At a lonely old ranch by the fire tonight.
Texas frontier, loneliness, Lady Clare, love, romance, past, memories, city vs. country, expensive life, fashion, humbleness
More Rhymes of a Ranch Hand
FC 11 L-06
54
Frank D. Lemon
Only a Dream
Where gently flows the brooklet.
Heaven on Horseback
Austin and Alta Fife
FC 11 F-13
43
Over the Trail
Out on the desert sear and brown.
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
225
Bruce Kiskaddon
Women Drivers
The motor car made women drivers, they say.
women drivers, horses, team, wild horse, fight
Saddle Songs: A Cowboy Songbag
FC 11 E-19
198
Don Edwards
Song; The Zebra Dun
The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses
FC 11 S-43
49
Robert W. Service
The Song of the Wage-Slave
When the long, long day if over, and the Big Boss gives me my pay.
Drift Wood
FC 11 B-59
25
Lucy S. Burnham
Grandma
She asked us to call her Nanna, Or mom, if we'd prefer; She loved us all so dearly, But grandma bothered her
The Cowboy Way
FC 11 L-38
45
Jim Liles
Close Your Eyes
Ranch houses are built one room at a time. As the kids come along, you cut some more pine. They're not always planned with blueprints and such. They're more often built, from a sketch in the truck.
A Body of Work: Unforgettable Characters, Part I
FC 11 D-14
21
M.B. Bill Dunn
Kid Brown: Is anyone all good?
This is the tale of old Sheriff Kid Brown, the biggest, toughest, slyest man in town. Three hundred pounds and six-food-six he stood, and he did anything he thought he could.
includes cassette tape
Cowboy Meditations
FC 11 L-02
33
Wade Lane
I Wonder
Oh, lofty clouds o' western skies!
On the Edge of Common Sense
FC 11 B-12
16
Baxter Black
Ecolastic Monetary Catability - not a poem
The Columbine Remembers
Anna Bowie May
FC 11 M-26
60
Frances May
Song Bird
A little bird of the mountains
Cowboy Lyrics
FC 11 C-03
35
Robert V. Carr
The Chuck Wagon
Cowpuncher's cafay.
food, foodways, chuck wagon, cook
One Hundred Poems
Waddie Mitchell
FOLK COLL 11 M-73
194
Waddie Mitchell
Through the Pain
Some think it odd I still talk with a partner Who's no longer with us out here on the range But you're part of my hist'ry like scars on my knuckles All there to remind we can live through the pain
death, pain, partner
What I Learned On the Way to Life: Insights and Concepts learned along the way..
FC 11 J-15
48
Hans "Jake" Jeppson
Memories in Autumn Hues
More past the middle of my life than I would like to be.