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
Thoughts in Rhyme
FC 11 M-09
45
E.W. "Roy" Miller
A Cowboy Talks with God
Dear God in Heaven way up high, can I talk with you a spell?
From a Cowboy's Point of View
FC 11 H-52
120
Dick Hays
Walkin'
Now God gave me a pair of legs To fit a pony's side, An' everywhere I had to go, You can bet your life I'd ride. I didn't think that walkin' Would ever be for me,
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
200
Twilight Dreams
They come in the quiet twilight hour
A Cow's Tail For a Compass; Cowboy Poetry and Short Stories
FC 11 F-17
21
Leon Flick
Good Ole Girls
There's some of them good ole cowgirls left. Their long braids hang so fine. And they can pull a snaffle bit, and they're damned good with their twine. They'll tangle with the biggest bull, Either rope him or hlep tail him down. They're not afraid to bump a buckin' horse when you're about to hit the ground.
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes & Prose by D.J. O'Malley, The N Bar Kid White
Janice and Mason Coggin
FC 11 O-06
88
D.J. O'Malley
A Sheepherder's Advice
My friend let me give you a little advice.
Old-Time Cowboy Songs
Hal Cannon
FC 11 C-34
22
James Barton Adams
The Cowboy's Dance Song
Now you can't expect a cowboy to agitate his shanks.
etiquette, ladies, cowboy, Denver, old-time puncher, high-toned dance, dancing, music, huggamania, cowboy trimmings
Partners in Poetry
Irene Pecoraro and Blondell Whitehead
FC 11 P-01
30
Blondell Whitehead
Old Nell the Herb Woman
In the hills of old Wyoming, Where us backwoods folk do dwell
The Cowboy in Verse & Photography
FC 11 M-06
20
J'Wayne McArthur
Lonely Cowgirl
This little gal is soft and cute.
West River Waltz: Western Poetry
FC 11 G-31
86
D. W. Groethe
Geezer Poem #3
And their age "to bed" meant to sleep.
From Poison Creek to Redwater
FC 11 G-40
77
Kenneth Goss
Chapter Twenty
Prose: Amanda Wallen showed up in the early homestead days. She was one of the first settlers to file on a claim down on what they called HOrse Crick. She said she loaded everything she could beg, borrow, or steal
Trail Dust of a Maverick
FC 11 B-15
166
E.A. Brininstool
Standing on His Merits
It's many a time I've plugged the lights.
gun, shooting, temper, temperament, ethics, rules, morals
A Cowboy's Forty Years of Gathering
FC 11 D-03
17
Chet Dawson
Mystery Hill
There's a tale goes `round in the far Southwest.
southwest, New Mexico, story, Englishman, dupe, joke, cheat, mountain, hill, trick, buyer, hills
Poems of the West by Charles Badger Clark, Jr.: Previously Unpublished
Greg Scott
FC 11 S-37
29
Charles Badger Clark, Jr.
Ode to the Busted Comb
O melancholy ruin of a comb O fragmentary wreak of what was once/ Bright beauty's aid and ally in the war
D.J. O'Malley: Cowboy Poet
D.J. O'Malley and John I. White
FC 11 O-02
11
D.J. O'Malley
D-2 Horse Wrangler
One day I thought I'd have some fun, and see how punching cows was done
Cowboy Poetry: Contemporary Verse
FC 11 M-43
115
Larry McWhorter
Peaches and the Twister
Now Peaches had a knack for takin' Things that wasn?t Peaches'.
Ever and Always I Shall Love the Land
FC 11 G-01
62
Clell Goebel Gannon
London
What though the last lone building lay in ash.
fire, World War II, bombing, destruction, Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, Keats, Magna Carta, England, spirit
Prairie Wife
FC 11 E-20
40
Elizabeth Ebert
Lesson Learned on Reading Esther: Chapter One
King Ahasuerus was a mighty man who ruled from a palace in Shushan Ethiopia to the Indian shore a hundred prvinces and more
After the Chisholm
FC 11 R-45
96
George Rhoades
Opportunity
I like my old farm pond, Dam covered in weeds and willow trees, Water murky brown, never clear blue; A place to sit and take my ease In the evening when chores are through.
wind, waves, chances
Famous Cowboy and Mountain Ballads
FC 11 F-23
14
Her eyes don't shine like diamonds: Three little lads love-story
Three little lads were seated one day, and their love stories did tell, Tom told of Kitty, who was so pretty
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950)
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-21
174
Bruce Kiskaddon
Warmin' One Side
It is nice for to set in a room with steam heat, Or a stove with a fender to cock up yore feet.
Poems of the Old West: A Rocky Mountain Anthology
Levette J. Davidson
FC 11 D-02
195
Helen Hunt Jackson
Cheyenne Mountain
By easy slope to west as if it had.
sun
Cowboys, Cattle, Horses, and Stuff
FC 11 B-65
30
T.L. Bush
He Never Stood A Chance
"Jim Bob, where ya goin', Are you headin' into town?" "Jim Bob what ya' goin to do, You just goin' to mess around?"
Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory
FC 11 G-44
72
DW Groethe
Notes on the Clipper
Startled whispers, spirits in the snow, rush about the yard and sheds like sparrows on the go. A quiet blue foreboding lingers as you stare and you know what's comin' on 'cause you can feel it in the air. but you hold your breath and pray with every fiber of your bein'
Riders of the Stars
FC 11 K-05
36
Henry Herbert Knibbs
The Killer
Got to kill to live...that's right...
murder, killing, guns, outlaw, drink, sheriff, law
The Schoolma'am and the saddle tramp
FC 11 W-39
George Wolstad
novel