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
One Hundred Poems
Waddie Mitchell
FOLK COLL 11 M-73
25
Waddie Mitchell
Long Trot
I know in the movies they all spur to the run Cuz they're riding real fast from the sheriff's big gun They will stampede and they'll gallop cuz it looks like it's fun To an audience willing to pay
trot, run, horse
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
392
Alice Corbin
The Wind (Chippewa)
The wind is carrying me around the sky.
sky, valley
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
258
Goldie Capers Smith
Shadows
Mary, as upon your breast.
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
37
Peggy Godfrey
A Clear Definition
Story.
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
239
Jacob Gough
A Plea For "Castles in the Air"
Amid the myriad troubles that meet us day by day
Prairie Poetry: Cowboy Verse of Kansas
Jim Hoy
FOLK COLL 11 H-62
24
Jack Hurlburt
A Tie-Fast Man
Down in the thorny brasada, by the sleepy Rio Grande, Came a special breed of cowboy known as a tie-fast man.
dedication, honesty, honor
Poems of Banjo Paterson
n/a
FOLK COLL 11P-40
28
Banjo Paterson
Song of the Wheat
We have sung the song of the droving days, Of the march of the travelling sheep- how by silent stages and lonely ways Thin, white battalions creep.
wheat, song, march
More Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse
FC 11 R-13
42
Bob Ross
When Nature Calls
A trip to the "John" looks mighty cold
Cow Tracks on the Land
FC 11 B-66
90
Lona Tankersley Burkhart
Shaniko
Shaniko you're just a sleepy ol' town, dozin' in the su. Dreamin' 'bout the busy days, that are over and done. Down your dusty streets, the wild young buckaroos did ride,
Voices from the Heartland: A Book of Original Poetry
FC 11 S-47
9
George J. Stucker
Act III
Leaves of green and brown are falling.
JB The Circle
Duward Campbell and Chuck Milner
FC 11 A-17
18
J.B. Allen
Stragglers
A trail gits long and weary driftin cattle thru the snow there ain't no way to hurry things alone
Vientos de las Sierras (Winds of the Mountains): Poems of New Mexico
FC 11 B-07
9
S. Omar Barker
New Mexico
What a God-forsaken desert!
Carrizozo, Pecos, mesquite, farm, land, dry
Orejana Bull: For Cowboys Only
FC 11 G-16
3
Gail I. Gardner
The Moonshine Steer
Two cowboys left their camp one day.
still, alcohol, corn liquor, steer
Unhobbled: Cowboy Poetry, Stories, and Outright Lies
FC 11 R-31
84
Pat Richardson
Rod's Wig
The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson: containing The Man from Snowy River
FC 11 P-08
115
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson
The Pearl Diver
Kanzo Makame, the diver, sturdy and small Japanee
Japanese
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
238
Ruth Averitte
Melody in Crystal
There was no sound on the frothy hill.
The Blueberry Roan
FC 11 L-17
24
Bill Lowman
Goat in the Hay
Ah feller I know went to the sale ring one day.
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
281
Will Ogilvie
Ballade Of Windy Nights
Have you learnet the sorrow of windy nights when lilacs down in the garden moan, and stars are flickering faint, wan lights, and voices whisper in wood and stone?
ghosts, shadow, pale, love, sorrow
Seventy Years in the Saddle
A. B. Melton
FC 11 M-52
71
unknown
Rock Me to Sleep in the Rockies
When shades of twilight come stealing and shadows are falling fast 'tis then a dream comes appealing for one spot from out the past.
I'd Make an Awful Pioneer
FC 11 J-12
47
Reed C. Jensen
Old Reliable
My old pickup truck bought new in seventy-three
Dry Crik Review (Environmental Issue): Fall 1991
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
36
Katie Lee
All My Rivers Are Gone
My place was yours for a time time. You force on time a measure--live within units, segments, compartments, limits--Taking the joy and pain of today,
future, desire, clean, Twentieth Century, scoriform, stones
Holaday and Hampton Poetry
Hampton Livestock Commission Co.
FC 11 H-39
55
The Holaday & Hampton Poet (Bruce Kiskaddon)
Hot Day
The sun's beatin' down till the flats are burnt brown, and your hoss is a-takin' it slow.
Ruby Mountain Rhymes
FC 11 W-09
40
Jack Walther
The Longhorn's Short Career
If my lot was to be longhorn bull, I would live my life complete and full.
Alaska-Yukon Favorites
FOLK COLL 11 S-78
12
Robert W. Service
The Spell of the Yukon
I wanted the gold, and I sought it; I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. Was it famine or scurvy - I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave.
nature, yukon, gold
Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 S-20
49
Colen H. Sweeten Jr.
Cowboy Gone Crazy
My calves are all dwarfs,