FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

106

Audrey Hankins

Hollyhocks

Hollyhocks and old ranch wives both thrive on so little care, bringing beauty to barren places, enduring year after year.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

108

Sandy Seaton

Traditions

The smell of the land, the feel in your hand brings ranchin' home to me.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

110

Colen Sweeton

Daddy's Bells

My daddy was a freighter, his wagons rolled across the West, with daddy in the driver's seat, a silver chain across his vest.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

112

Gary Robertson

Rode my Son's Horse this Mornin'

I rode my son's horse this mornin' with daddy's Capriola kack.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

114

Sunny Hancock

Ode to My Lady, My Wife

I had all my Christmas shopping done, all that I had to do, all that I had left to get this year was one small gift for you;

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

118

Vess Quinlan

A Scattering of Ashes

The old cowboy left instructions on how and where his remains were to be placed. "Along the ridge," he said "and out across the little meadow where the elk come first in spring."

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

120

Dan Schmitt

Lessons

One thousand seven games of rummy were played beneath the shade of our modern-day chuckwagon, a broke-down trailer truck.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

125

Paul Schmitt

The Last Fiddler at Frenchman's

Papa got it from a drunkard who had squandered all his money and the fiddle was the last thing that he had of any worth.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

130

Mike Logan

Behold a Pale Horse

Montana 1886. A pale horse first appears white shadows on a drought-struck range, the coldest fall in years.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

133

Red Steagall

To an Old Friend

I stood by the fountains as they brought him out, a lost, lonely look on his face. I ain't never seen him in nothin' but boots the wheelchair shore seemed out of place.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

136

Virginia Bennettt

Songs on the Nightwind

Pennies saved on a rough-cut shelf, safely hidden in a Log Cabin tin, behind a Clabber Girl can, it seemed a sweet to be banking daydreams in.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

139

Jack Hannah

The Old Prospector

Well, he headed out the canyon one late autumn in the snow. The old prospector with his mule was loaded, movin' slow.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

142

Yvonne Hollenbeck

How Far is Lonesome

My mama got a letter from Aunt Jessie yesterday and she said that it is lonesome where she's at; you know, I really miss her since she up and moved away; Mama showed me where she went on our old map.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

144

Rhoda Sivell

The Rider that Never Made Good

You look at the men that are lucky, you tell me they're fated to be, you say that they got all the chances; there's none left for you or for me.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

146

Robert W. Service

The Men that Don't Fit In

There's a race of men that don't fit in, a race that can't stay still; so they break the hearts of kith and kin, and they roam the world at will.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

148

Ross Knox

Memories

You sit in your chair and you stare at the wall and you relive the days when you rode proud and tall while making the big drives, rope and brand and just practice the art of making a hand.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

150

Tom Russell

Hallie Lonnigan

My name is Hallie Lonnigan I married Walter Jones "For better or for worse" so said the Reverend Dr. Stone but the better times were all used up and the worse times took control then drinking' took my Walter may the Lord protect his soul.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

152

Wallace David Coburn

The Cowboy's Reply

Old and blemished and flecked with gray a cow-horse feebly stands a weak reminder of the day he smote the desert sands with flying hoofs that held the speed of wings or praire wind, the model of a noble breed his equal hard to find.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

154

Gwen Petersen

Tall in the Saddle

Sidesaddle riding once was a must for a lady in long-layered skirt, with knee fitted over a cradling hook, she mostly endured till it hurt.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

158

Jack Walther

The Old Ranch Cook

The most important man on any ranch no matter which way you look is the one working in the kitchen he's the man called the cook.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

161

Ray Hanzlik

Cook's Revenge

The now had long since melted and the prairie had turned green when Turkey-Track's chuckwagon and their riders hit the scene.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

164

Chris Isaacs

The Stampede at Jenny's Caf?

I pulled in the other day at Jenny's, a little caf? there in town. Thought I'd get myself a tall iced tea to help wash a burger down.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

167

A. B. "Banjo" Paterson

Clancy of the Overflow

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago; he was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him, just 'on spec,' addressed as follows: "Clancy, of the Overflow."

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

170

Marion Fitzgerald

Banjo, May I Have this Dance

Banjo, may I have this dance, will you lead me in the waltz to the rhythm of the hoofbeats of the Snowy Mountain horse, where courage rides high as the Kosciuszko peaks, and the pride of that pony is dancing in my feet.

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion

Virginia Bennett

FC 11 B-33

172

Howard Parker

Share and Share Alike

He'd never known no quittin' time just worked from sun to sun. Then when the days got shorter he would labor till he got done.