FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

237

Will H. Ogilvie

The Graves Out West

If the lonely graves are scattered in that fenceless vast God's Acre, If no church bells chime across them, and no mourners tread between - Yet the souls of those sound sleepers go as swiftly to their Maker,

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

239

Will H. Ogilvie

Fairy Tales

I chanced on an old brown book to-day All stained and yellow with dust and age, But the beats of a boy's heart, stilled for aye, Are heard at the turning of every page.

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

241

Will H. Ogilvie

Villanelle

Last night in Memory's boughs aswing, When none but I had heart to hear, A wee brown mavis tried to sing. But ah! the wild notes would not ring As once they rang - so loud and clear!

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

243

Will H. Ogilvie

Ben Hall's Stirrup-Irons

A lithe young squatter passes in the dust, His buckles gleaming and his bars aglance; but laden with long years of old romance The quaint old stirrups covered with red rust

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

244

Will H. Ogilvie

Ballade of Windy Nights

Hav eyou learnt the sorrow of windy nights When lilacs down in the garden moan, And stars are flickcering faint, wan lights, And voices whipser in wood and stone?

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

246

Will H. Ogilvie

The Bushman's Friend

Let the sailor tell of the roaring gale Or the blue waves' rippling laughter, Let the soldier sing of the sabre swing Or the laurels of glory after;

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

248

Will H. Ogilvie

The City of Gray Griefs

Somewhere, hid in our hearts, a City stands Gray-mossed with all the sorrow of the years, And broken-arched with Love's unclasping hands And mortared stone to stone with bitter tears

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

250

Will H. Ogilvie

Christmas Night

The lamps iwll be lit over seas to-night, And the feast of the year be spread, And the girls will gather with faces bright And the wine will sparkle red; And hands will close on the glass's stem,

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

252

Will H. Ogilvie

The Curellest Dream

So here at the last I find I am holding agian your hand, And why you are curel no more, but kind, I scarcely can understand; But I know htat the earth is ablaze with roses

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

254

Will H. Ogilvie

Bowmont Water

O, we think we're happy roving! But the stars that crown the night, They are only ours for loving When the moon is lost to sight! And my hopes are fleeting forward

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

257

Will H. Ogilvie

The Rose Out of Reach

A red rose grew on a southward wall, There was never a rose on the tree so tall; Though roses twined at my lingering feet Roses and roses, scented sweet, And roses bent to my love-lit eyes

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

259

Will H. Ogilvie

Sorry to Go!

I watched by the homestead where moon-beam and star Made a glory of night-time and danced with the dew, And the bush wind that whispered from ranges afar Set a-tremble the kurrjong leaves as it blew:

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

262

Will H. Ogilvie

The Land of Dumb Despair

Beyond where farthest drought-fires burn, By hand of Fate it once befell, I reached the realm of No-Return That meets the March of hell. A silence crueller than Death

Fair Girls and Gray Horses

FC 11 O-12

265

Will H. Ogilvie

L'envoi to the Overlanders

Take this farewlel from one must leave The rowel and the rein Before the blue Canoblas weave Their snow-white hoods again; Before the winter suns have kissed The lips of Autumn dead,

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

5

Bill Lowman

My First Airplane Ride

Prose: I was raised on a cow-calf outfit in the western North Dakota badlands, rode horses three miles to a one-room country school for eight years and finished up at sentinel Butte High.

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

6

Bill Lowman

Leash Law

Prose: On a flight from Bismarck to Salt Lake City, my dad and I were "on top of the world" making our way for a third straight year to Elko, Nevada, to be part of the big Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

9

Bill Lowman

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

Prose: A lot of people sortta accuse me of seeking attention an' publicity, like trying to get on the Johnny Carson show with this wide handlebar moustache. WAIT!! That's not true!!

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

11

Bill Lowman

High Noon

Prose: I can get into more trouble at high noon, sober, than a whole potload of rowdies on a Saturday night down town. For example, I was headed down I-94 east of Bismarck

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

13

Bill Lowman

Compression Test

Prose: I grew up usin' old beat up outfits that you jest always checked the oil in before you ever turned the key. It was jest part of the procedure. Finally after I'd been married for years, the banker finally gave in and we got the money

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

15

Bill Lowman

Trifocals

Prose: A few years back I was headed home from a business run, so I stopped at the saddle shop in Watford City, just ta look around and talk to my own kind. As I came up to the counter, "The Maker" was busy trimming around an inch off the brim

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

16

Bill Lowman

Do Ya Ever Get Ta Wonderin'

Do ya ever get ta wonderin' 'bout how things come to pass Why they call that bush ah sage an' who it was that named grass grass Er when some day yer ridin' an' yer mind will off an' dream

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

19

Bill Lowman

When Coyotes HIt Twelve Dollars a Pound

When coyotes hit twelve dollars ah pound I'd run sheep, I would, just ta bring 'em around I'd use strychnine, 10-80, and build ah snare I'd use mines an' guns an' traps- that's fair I'd sell them cows, with their fifty cent calves

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

21

Bill Lowman

Is There ah Cathouse on Mars?

From my saddle I'm amazed, by the millions of stars I can't help but wonder, are there others like ours For just beyond the sunset, hangs one bright glowin' red So is it any wonder, if the thought comes to your head

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

22

Bill Lowman

How Many Auctioneers- Do You Suppose is Enough?

How many auctioneers - do you suppose is enough Why there's eight er ten in Bowman County, just countin' in the rough seems when one gets established, with a style so cunning and clever, He's good for years, some go on forever

Walk Ah Mile in My Bones

FC 11 L-4

24

Bill Lowman

How Many Cows Do You Suppose Sentinel Butte Would Run?

How many cows do you s'pose Sentinel Butte would run? Me and Lane got ta talkin' and rambled on fur fun There's five more vacant lots just last summer alone It's been most years since the town had grown