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
Poems of the Old West: A Rocky Mountain Anthology
Levette J. Davidson
FC 11 D-02
16
A. O. McGrew
A Hit at the Times
Way out upon the Platte, near Pike's Peak we were told.
Pike's Peak, gold, root hog or die
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950)
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-21
80
Bruce Kiskaddon
Her Neighbor's Kids
Most cows will give their calves good care.
Melodious Poems From the Hills
FC 11 B-58
41
Sandia Bill
The Egos Called "We"
Why should I take myself so serious? I'm only an atom in our great universe. And there are others, the sages say, Millions and millions of light years away.
Cow Country
FC 11 E-04
31
Tom Ellinwood
Parental Responsibility
The problem of delinquency.
heifers, calf
New Mexico in Verse
William Felter and John L. McCarty
FC 11 F-01
4
S. Omar Barker
Onofre Romero
Up to the timberline, grassy and steep.
sheep, sheepherder
Unhobbled: Cowboy Poetry, Stories, and Outright Lies
FC 11 R-31
14
Pat Richardson
Forty Years of Marriage
Cowgirl Poetry: One Hundred Years of Ridin' and Rhymin'
Virginia Bennett
FC 11 B-69
74
Kay Kelley
To Foxy
Sweet mare, if all I did was watch As you run and buck and play, Marvel at your thund'ring power When you charge and whirl away
Cowboy Poetry Matters: From Abilene to the Mainstream: Contemporary Cowboy Writ.
Robert McDowell
FC 11 M-54
134
Joel Nelson
Song of the Packer
Down from the peaks and pinnacles, and up fromthe canyon floor, through passes and fountains of immature mountains where big-hearted rivers roar
The Big Roundup: Classic and Contemporary Poetry from CowboyPoetry.com
Margo Metegrano
FC 11 M-47
264
Connie Rossignol
In Defense of Donkeys
I've bailed off' a horses and bucked off' a mules.
I Ain't No Dude
FC 11 G-19
49
Lloyd M. Gerber
Bookkeeping
I have a tax accountant.
Out Where the West Begins
FC 11 C-07
22
Arthur Chapman
The Diamond Hitch
When camp is moved, at break of day.
Packer Bill, tenderfoot, law, mules, caravans, track
Cowboy and Other Poetry: Thoughts by Men Who Have Mashed Their Fingers
FC 11 T-16
15
Jim Tanner
Gentleness on the Plains
But no, some fellow came out from the east.
Write Tough!
FC 11 G-35
13
Peggy Godfrey
My Grief
How willing you are To share details of his death When for a decade You refused him your sanction To enjoy my warm admiration. My mentor, my friend, my father-in-law Divorce changed the course of rivers.
City Cattle: Humorous Western Political Satire
FC 11 J-06
59
Derwin J. Jeffries
The Feed Lots
There is a street they call "Skid row."
poverty, unemployment, starvation, soup lines
Laugh Kills Lonesome
FC 11 L-25
19
Mike Logan
When Tommie Turned the Wolf Loose
Ol' Tom, he's turned the wolf loose.
Jesse Rogers' Song Collection and Souvenir from Old Mexico
Jesse Rogers
FC 11 R-32
4
Mother, Queen of my Heart
I had a home down in Texas down where the bluebonnets grew
Poems: Ridin' Fence
FC 11 A-09
17
Vic Anderson
Modern Gunman
He'd draw in a lightnin'-like manner; Then point it and ease back the hammer.
The Cowboy in Verse & Photography
FC 11 M-06
22
J'Wayne McArthur
Success
Now, I've known men of success and fame.
Extra 'n' Ordinary
FC 11 G-37
68
Peggy Godfrey
Stories about Vogal Sandlin, My Neighbor 1988-1998
Story
Just Thinkin'
FC 11 S-17
28
Georgie Connell Sicking
Schurz
Out in old Nevada where the Walker River flows
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
163
Paul Thomas Lillard
Attila the Hun
In a camp outside the town of Orlean, sat Attila the Hun and his mood was mean. He'd laid siege to this little town but was having no luck and was feeling down.
gunpowder, hun, chinese, orlean
Sawdust & Shavin's
FC 11 S-11
40
Shep Smith
B.S. Bulletin No. 31 or The Dew-Whacker
The race is on the lines are drawn
Bitter Creek Junction
FC 11 H-32
38
Linda M. Hasselstrom
Loving the Cabinetmaker
You say,
The Ranch: Poems of the West
FC 11 L-09
71
Elliott C. Lincoln
The Misanthrope
A big blue fly went buzzin' in the Dark Horse Livery door.
Regarding the Others
FOLK COLL 11 E-24
24
Maria Lisa Eastman
How Do I Love You?
If I count the ways that I love you, like in a well-loved poem we read over candlelight around a dinner table
love, evidence, example