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
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
345
R.L. Cary, Jr.
The New Magdalen
The yellow death came stealing
Ol' Mike's Philosophy and Foolishness
Mike Oatman
FOLK COLL 11 O-14
153
Anonymous
I'm Special
I'm special. In all the world there's nobody like me. Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like me. Nobody has my smile. Nobody has my eyes, my nose, my hair, my hands, my voice. I'm special.
uniqueness, eternity, personality
Horse Talk & Other Poetry
FC 11 S-32
41
Larry M. Slade
Russian Latrine
No odor on earth is quite so keen
Vientos de las Sierras (Winds of the Mountains): Poems of New Mexico
FC 11 B-07
16
S. Omar Barker
Saddle Lure
Oh, I've sat on hard park benches and in springy Morris chairs.
chair, seat, saddle, creaking leather, saddle horse
Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion
Virginia Bennett
FC 11 B-33
54
Pual Steuermann
Dilly Wah Dilly
Several years ago I ol' Montan' my horse-trading days had just began and I asked a guy about a horse one day. He said, "Son, he's a dilly wah dilly from chicky wah shay."
The Land Where the Cowboy Grows
FC 11 H-36
14
Addie Viola Hudson
The Free and Easy Way
I'm back among the hills again, to the free and easy way, to brand the calves and "bust the bronc," and draw a regular pay;
Breezy Western Verse
FC 11 A-11
15
James Barton Adams
A Ranch Girl's Choice
Folks shuck their heads and whispered 'round.
Buddy Ballads: Songs of the A.E.F. (1919)
FC 11 B-42
15
Berton Braley
Some Community
There's a bunch of sores on my poor left arm which has swelled like a country hilly, for I'm filled chock full with a husky swarm of anti-disease bacilli.
Ever and Always I Shall Love the Land
FC 11 G-01
22
Clell Goebel Gannon
Things I Have Seen
I have seen cherries hanging over-ripe.
nature, sight, green, rain, spring
Rough Rhymes of Reverence
FC 11 N-05
14
Jimmie Nelson
My Friends the Crows
Two black crows come to our ranch 'most every day.
bird, birds
The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson: containing The Man from Snowy River
FC 11 P-08
10
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson
Clancy of the Overflow
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems
FC 11 M-45
14
Wallace McRae
A Woman's Place
"A woman's place is in the home."
The Song of the Hunter
FC 11 L-40
12
Robert L. Laumeyer
Friends
I like a lot of people But on few do I depend. That's why I'm very careful About who I call my friend. (end)
Drift Wood
FC 11 B-59
21
Lucy S. Burnham
The Shelter Of Home
A fierce storm is raging, it knocks at our door, It shrieks and is gone with a passionate roar.
Songs of a Sourdough
FC 11 S-03
85
Robert W. Service
The March of the Dead
The cruel war was over--oh, the triumph was so sweet!
You're Gonna Get a Kick Outta This!
FC 11 L-28
20
Chuck Larsen
Lookin' Back
The team was hitched, the wagon loaded, It was "Oregon or Bust!"
Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems
FC 11 R-44
35
George Rhoades
My Daddy Is A Cowboy
She was just barely three, Holding to her mother's hand, Blue eyes lookin' up at me At the museum's front door stand.
Where Prairie Flowers Bloom And Other Poems
FC 11 H-33
90
Yvonne Hollenbeck
Mortgage One Good Wife
When the banker pays a visit.
banker, insurance, inventory
Singing Sioux Cowboy
FC 11 C-10
46
Ann Clark
Calves
The mother cow has a calf.
cows, calves
John "Jay" Kulm's Pocketbook of Cowboy Poetry: The Blue Book
FC 11 K-19
3
John "Jay" Kulm
Northwest Towns
I have a friend from Texas who constantly complains.
Still Horsin' Around
FC 11 C- 55
2
Stu Campbell
Given' Enough Rope
Prose: When I was about 13 or 14, I had the makin's of a good hand. I could ride some, I'd been on a buckin' horse or two an' hadn't got throwed- too hard anyways.
Shorty's Yarns: Western Stories and Poems of Bruce Kiskaddon
FC 11 K-28
19
Bill Siems, ed.
Concernin' Bill
Speakin' of Bill, the first time I ever see him is at a litlte mountain town up in Colorado when we was both a heap younger than what we are now.
The Broncho Book
FC 11 C-13
105
Captain Jack Crawford
The Irish Lover
I left a little Colleen in the isle beyond the sea.
Ireland, love
Wild Prairie Roses: A Collection of Verse by North Dakotans
Shirley J. Mikkelson
FC 11 M-11
79
Ellen L. Crawford
cat burglar
like a cat burglar, love comes,
cat burglar, love, fortress, tricks, feelings, wisdom, pain.
The Five Stages of Quitting Farming
John William Kulm
FOLK COLL 11 K-36
60
John William Kulm
Old
He's old, and he knows he's old. The very first time I knew my dad was old was fifteen years ago inside a corral in a snowstorm
old, age, memory