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
Fair Girls and Gray Horses
FC 11 O-12
198
Will H. Ogilvie
In Town
Where the smoke-clouds scarcely drift And the breezes seem to sleep, Where the sunbeams never lift Half the gloom of alleys deep, comrades! must we languish ever,
Dry Creek Rhymes
FC 11 D-11
34
John Cutler Dofflemyer
can chasin' lady
somewhere there's three cans in the arena.
On the Edge of Common Sense
FC 11 B-12
8
Baxter Black
Scrap Iron - not a poem
Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion
Virginia Bennett
FC 11 B-33
68
Sally Harper Bates
Oh You Cowboys!
Oh you cowboys! You know you've lived the life!
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
61
Bob Christensen
The Farm Sale
We was headed out to Reno on that trail that's known as Eighty when the radio anouncer gave the word. There was going to be a "farm sale" on some ranch they called the Mustang all the land, equipment, buildings and the herd.
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
84
Bruce Kiskaddon
The Livery Stable
Can you mind the livery stable.
sleigh, horses, sulky, children, socializing, meeting place, characters, smell, reminisce, childhood
There Ain't Much Romance in the Life of Us Cows
FC 11 J-09
12
Bill Jones
A Reincarnated Cowboy Repents
From Doc's letter all can surmise.
South, home, homesick
Horsesense and Nonsense
FOLK COLL 11 J-26
45
LeRoy Jones
Roundup
Had you noticed that the cows that were so peaceful in the pasture Make a change and get suspicious when you start to drive them in?
corral, stubborn, horse, cow, skill
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
381
Witter Bynner
A Dance for Rain
You may never see rain, unless you see.
Cochiti, Pueblo, thunder, death, strength earth, prayer, cloud, god
Cowpunchers, Sheepherders, and Plain Pig Farmers: Wild West Limericks
FC 11 P-13
27
Gwen Petersen and Jeane Rhodes
Horses, Mules 'n Donkeys
Beware of that friendly fast talker
Cowboy Poetry: Real Ole Down Home Stuff
FC 11 T-06
44
Dolores Tozer
Two of a Kind
I had real cowboys at my place, But the Devil and No.8 still gave them a race They weren't mean, some said breechy was the word But I called them something else, and its a word that you've heard.
"Originals"
FC 11 S-16
45
J.D. Santee
Spurs
Spurs that jingle when you walk down the street,
Mountain Echoes
FC 11 W-08
48
Jim Whilt (Poet of the Rockies)
The Cabin
I followed a trail through the forest on a day that was stormy and cold,
Ranch Reveries
FC 11 H-21
3
Oscar Herem
Memories
Camped high upon a mountain, I gaze across the hills.
Mother nature, leaf, weather, past, what might have been, despair, alone, time
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
3
Peggy Godfrey
Homees Need Sparkle
Unfamiliar but friendly blue eyes Hold my gaze as the voice inquires "Where do you get all that sparkle and energy?" I stumble over words Like a young girl being asked to dance for the first time.
I Was Raised In A Barn
FC 11 B-64
36
Mary Borm
Auctioneers
I've been to tons of sales in my life, But can't say that's my forte'. There's a farm sales, and antique sales, Or estate sales that last all day.
Round-Up: The Roper
FC 11 C-31
1
Ernest Cox
Oh to Be a Cowboy
I have never attended a college.
pollution, smog, city, cowboy, The Western Cowboy, dreaming
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
32
Paul Thomas Lillard
Notice Notice Notice
The thief and robber Eustice Payne age twenty-six years from Pantucky, Maine, for murder and robbery and horse theft too will be hung by the neck as is his due.
ad, wanted, announcement
West River Waltz: Western Poetry
FC 11 G-31
165
D. W. Groethe
He Was Once a Hero
He was a cowboy of note back in his younger days.
Wind Songs
FC 11 R-43
25
Norman Edward Rourke
Deep Woods
Beyond the field the deep woods loom, and there amidst its shade, Live the creatues of the wild, Whose sounds are quietly made.
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
23
Henry Lawson
Jack Dun of Never tire
It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done.
Old-Time Cowboy Songs
Hal Cannon
FC 11 C-34
56
Slim Critchlow
I'd Like to be In Texas for the Roundup In The Spring
In a lobby of a big hotel in New York town one day.
Cowboy Poetry: Contemporary Verse by Duke Davis
Janice and Mason Coggin
FC 11 D-10
135
Duke Davis
Beauty and the Bees
It was a bright, clean day and quite sunny outside.
Rimes of the Rockies
FC 11 M-48
44
Harrison R. Merrill
Oneida
Across the sun-kissed stretches of my dreams.
youths, maidens, days gone by
West of East
FC 11 H-17
137
Harry Elmore Hurd
Crow Feather
Black feather, fallen to earth, you bring.
crow, bird, flight, wing, nature