FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection
29769 results found for "No Search Criteria Set"Book Title
Composer
Call #
Pages
Author
Poem Title
First Lines
Keywords
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
11
Linda Hussa
Drought
In the midnight she woke. It was not the window rattling against dry putty or wind sucking and giving the back door or the thump of the stove cooling. Deeper.
ache, dry, rain, dark
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
7
Linda Hussa
The Landsmen
Across the field we rode once more to check the fence as we would eye the slim true legs of a horse that is to be sold and paused again along the sight ridge where
dragline, soil, labor, water
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
8
Linda Hussa
The Field Of The Owls
Today we gathered the heifers from the hot spring field. Only a few hundred acres, but a maze of hot bogs the cows have charted. Owls flew up from the thatch soundlessly,
hay, calf, trailer, snow
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
9
Linda Hussa
Homing
Someone's pigeons are lost. A storm pushed them out of the sky. They peck bitter rye seed beneath cracks in the feed trough flutter up, circle in graceful sweeps and down again.
dead, wind, gold, Idaho
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
12
Linda Hussa
Checking On The Old Saddle Horses
Crossing the field on new snow that deepens in each grove of trees and slides off the creek banks the foot of my horse steps on a ghostly track of horses in line
snow, track, fog, corrals, ghost
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
13
Linda Hussa
Playing At Doctor
Poor old broken legged ewe, the flop of it wrings my stomach, the grate climbs my spine like a stair. Three strong legs are tied so I can mend the one that snapped
breath, muscles, fingers, feet, pain
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
14
Linda Hussa
On The Raft Of This Day
Sometimes I come up against it flattened like a moth outside a window wanting in where the light is. My palms press the questions smutty with sweat and
focus, dusck, geese, feather
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
15
Linda Hussa
In The Evening Autumn
As I rode out to check cows calving the light came across the meadow low soft and in it I could see a shimmering blanket of cobwebs moving in the breeze like the surface of water.
meadow, life, army, spider
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
16
Linda Hussa
Broken Promise
The wild red heifer with ears that flapped around her head calved standing up threw it off calf, bloody streamers of afterbirth dumped on the snow. The flag of every nation.
calf, fences, blood
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
17
Linda Hussa
Dried Up
He doesn't love his land. He doesn't feel it's welcome as he steps outside each dawn. For him there is no air frail or biting no willow's yellow tips swelled with March
cottonwood, barn, dog, woodshed
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
18
Linda Hussa
The Cure
I prescribe you this go to the desert high or low cold or hammers of Hell shed the clothes of care strip down to the bones step out brave let the desert see you're unarmed
laugh, sing, rest, sleep, time
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
19
Linda Hussa
Missing A Person
A yellow warbler stands on a slender limp in my aspen tree. Don't tell the mountain. I don't want it to come looking for its tree. When the sap pulled to its core for winter
Katie, buffaloberry, soil, roots, safe, necklace
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
20
Linda Hussa
The Midnight Check
Even when it's not cold the night air meets your face with freshness and it's yours for shedding warmth of kit and cover and dreamy sleep. You slip in slender walking
habit, step, dark, crest
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
21
Linda Hussa
Angels Of The Soft Breeze Of Purification
In her tree they set to sleep not as omen not as blight and when morning lights her window she sees dark silk fans stand on limbs -a tree of sunning moths.
Sophie, Turkey Vulture, Cathartes Aura, love, young, flight
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
22
Linda Hussa
First-Calf Heifer
Laying flat resting between heaves of labor's force glaring over her shoulder suspicious of me crouching in the grass. Magpie on the ribs of a cow that winterkilled
bone, violence, labor, rich, knife
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
23
Linda Hussa
Still Life
Beyond death waits not as malice but as light that turns away from all others toward the one.
death, light, malice, toward
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
24
Linda Hussa
Give Us Rain!
Don't we wait for rain in this dry country licking down sweet wild kisses, pretending it's not our heart's desire? If rain was a person we'd have given it up long ago as shiftless,
smile, perfume, clouds, buck, weed
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
26
Linda Hussa
The Hunter's Dog
The goose flared up from the rose briar and weeds along the lane, flared and flopped her wing bitten off by 20 gauge shot. She is trapped by woven wire fencing
blood, death, worthwhile, strength
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
27
Linda Hussa
The Closest Point
From anywhere on the long arc of the basin Mail Box Hill can be seen. A woman liftrs her arm to shade away the sun. A wink of hot light would be the mail stage turning.
Homesteaders, hope, windmill, ravens
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
28
Linda Hussa
Surprise Valley And Sister Serengeti
In the photograph they smiled not knowing the cheetah single out the males. He had the brains. She a foot taller with the bones of Norsemen bore five children graceful gazelles.
lion, leopard, bikes, burn
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
29
Linda Hussa
Christmas Night
Outside it is quiet. Inside Christmas is in full swing. You know what I mean. But here in the barn my mare chews her grain and that is all that occupies her.
oats, cat, star, moon
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
30
Linda Hussa
Shadows
The winter solstice is passed. The new year will find its way on dreams we have not yet dreamed. In spring's papery dawns the living sky will return with Sandhill cranes passing northward.
stagger, love, lie
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
31
Linda Hussa
Corn Moon Rising
Clear of dark possession. Hoot, you owl, for you have done well to call her back this night. Hoot, in celebration, for she has risen up again round as we are.
ancient, drain, harm, plain
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
32
Linda Hussa
Crane
A thing of flight standing in the reeds touches my heart. The lame leg hangs. I know him each year.
Bob Dunnington, reed, leg, flight
Ride The Silence
FC 11 H-58
33
Linda Hussa
Pioneer Cemetary
My ride ended in a small square white fence worn to gray posts drawn in a drunken weave enclosing marble spires carved with cross and names and years.
Jean Dunnington, grace, soil, hill, windrowed