FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

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Book Title

Composer

Call #

Pages

Author

Poem Title

First Lines

Keywords

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Luci Tapahonso

Yes, It Was My Grandmother

Yes, It was my grandmother who trained wild horses for pleasure and pay. People knew of her, saying: she knows how to handle them.

cowgirl, smell, sweat, kitchen, careless

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Mary Austin

Night Lambing

"So it is that here and there, one sees a shepherd making rounds with a lantern through the night, and in a flock of three to five hundred

pasture, peer, ewes, meridian

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Larry McWhorter

The Red Cow

"I almost put my rope on her once but then I thought it through. I had my day in the sun long ago so I left her for someone like you."

bunkhouse, reputation, pride, death, pests

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Badger Clark

A Bad Half Hour

Wonder why I feel so restless; Moon is shinin' still and bright, cattle all is restin' easy, but I just kain't sleep tonight. Ain't no cactus in my blankets,

lonesome, dance, coffee, sing, dream

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Curley Fletcher

The Sheepherders Lament

I have summered in the tropics, with the yellow fever chill; I have been down with the scurvy; I've had every ache and ill. I have wintered in the Arctic,

chinese, patience, misery, Spanish

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

S. Omar Barker

Watchin' 'Em Ride

Isom Like was seventy-odd, Straight in the back as a steel ramrod, and the whiskers that growd on his leathery chin they bristled out instead of in.

pine tree, pride, storybook, fence, cry

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

S. Omar Barker

Rain on the Range

When your boots are full of water and your hat brim's all a -drip, and the rain makes little rivers dribblin' down your horse's hip,

crash, quit, biscuit, cook, fire

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Jack Thorp

Little Joe, The Wrangler

Little Joe, the wrangler, will never wrangle more; His days with the remuda-they are done. 'Twas a year ago last April he joined the outfit here, A little Texas stray and all alone.

canoe, cotton, married, poor, weather

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Georgie Sicking

The Greatest Sport

An old Nevada mustang as wild as she could be...I'll tell you all for sure, she made a gambler out of me. I forgot I was a mother,

wife, mustang, weak, pretty, sport

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Gwen Petersen

Saturday Night at Swamp Creek

There's always a dance on Saturday at Swamp Creek School House Hall; The cowboys come from far and near like bulls when heifers bawl.

brave, paint, numb, loud, snort

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Bruce Kiskaddon

Our Boss

He started young and he drifted far-the owner out at the Diamond-Bar. He has cattle grazing on many a hill, but down in his heart he's a cow-boy still.

shelter, race, kill, joke, news

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Sue Wallis

No Step for a Stepper

Dad taught me how to swing a rope and step on colts hhow to eat a slicker-full, cowboy style tomatoes, peaches canned and sardines with a pocket knife

hug, married, unborn, pride

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Sue Wallis

Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass

Cattle, horse, sky and grass-these are the things that sway and pass before our eyes and through our dreams, through shiny, sparkly, golden gleams

circle, bleed, earth, birth, death

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Linda M. Hasselstrom

Beef Eater

I have been eating beef hearts all my life. I split the smooth maroon shape lengthwise, open it like a diagram, chambers exposed.

juices, fat, table, mistake

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Virginia Bennett

The Road Most Often Taken

Given the choice, I'll always take the trail toward the lofty ridges. Where the winds brush the pines' long needles and the timber rattlers hide.

sinner, lingering, graze, elk

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Everett Ruess

A Life

A life is a mirror reflecting the road over which it passes. Sometimes when it rains the mirror itself is reflected in the road.

life, rain, reflect, mirror

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Virginia Bennett

Death of a Loner

Gray tendril across a frozen cheek, she was found on the trail to the woodpile. Light dusting of snow blanketed her form and hungry cats eyed her body

cabin, love, outcast, alone

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Allen McCandless

The Cowboy's Soliloquy

All day o'er the prairie alone I ride, not even a dog to run by my side, my fire I kindle with chips gathered round, and boil my coffee without being ground.

pot, prize, bride, love

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

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; The sort of thing I find with which is very simple

doctor, mirror, weight, image, special

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Joel Nelson

Scotty

The Flaxen maned colt that had more cow than any three horses I ever rode Scotty who I named after Peter Scott-the Aussie-a good horse hand

fever, journey, deal, buck

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Laurie Wagner Buyer

His Horses

I do not dream of him or the way he once held me, I dream of him and his horses- their names sliding through fingers of consciousness like butter-soft

birthday, alive, meadows, candy

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

William E. Black Jr.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You

Each day the world you saw bloom and grow has withered; Your hopes vanquished in a heat of indifferene and inaction of fear, in unechoing silence.

haunt, pain, freedom, oppose

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

John Dofflemyer

Obstacles

There are boulders even in dry creek beds, obstacles for water to flow around-make the sounds that soothe us so.

sing, night, curse, music

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

Bruce Kiskaddon

That Letter

I rode to that box a settin' on a post beside the trail, that our outfit used fur gettin' all their messages and mail. There I got a little letter and

clever, spell, fight, mother

Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West

C.J. Hadley

FC 11 H-60

John Dofflemyer

Old Men

So much needs not to be said. Old men grin with their eyes, save breath with a look of understanding, yet the preachers, teachers and poets go on and on,

search, resonance, magic