FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

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Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

Old Paperface

Here's a tale of a salty old cowhorse, In his whole life he ne're won a race. They called him old Paperface.

cowhorse, pride, bucking

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

My Mom

When I was born I couldn't see, And gettin' born can scary be, But who was there in bed with me? My Mom.

mother, caring, gratitude

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Day That We Fed the Boys Skunk

Me and my shackmate, Boondocks Was gettin' to feel pretty mean, We'd been mendin' fence and punchin' cows And livin' on bread and beans.

skunk, food, dinner

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

An Observation Regarding the Fair Sex

If there are anythings more fun than girls, I have failed to find them, and I searched diligently until the occasion of my own personal nuptials at the conclusion of my twenty-eighth year-- at which time my quest was involuntarily concluded.

in-laws, wife, women

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Burial of Billy McCabe

The snow was deep, the wind was raw As it whistled down the line, With frozen and intensive gloom Beneath the ancient pines.

burial, casket, death

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Day Me and Strawberry Fell

Old Strawb was a fair-lookin' cowhorse Bay roan with two stockins' thrown in, maybe eight years old when I knew him He as tall, too leggy, but trim.

cliff, fall, endurance

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

Learning Aids

A kind and gentle cowboy, nothing serious on his mind, Hit town a second time this year for the rodeo and wine. His cutup days were long gone by, not a wild oat left to sow, His need was leisure time and whittlin' and the local rodeo.

aids, mistake, confusion

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Conversion of Ike McCadd

Out past the great salt desert, Where existence is mighty sad Lives a cranky and unsanitary ole hermit, In the person of bad Ike McCadd.

wolf, camping, storm

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

God Planted a Pinion Tree

Back in the early 'fifties, Me and Latigo Jim Took a contract to round up some Long ears In the draws on the Toroweep rim. It looked like a nice easy payday One of our better schemes, But unless we branded some Mavericks, We'd b e livin' on biscuits and beans.

tree, canyon, search

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Perversities of the Pup

I met a poor old sad Cowboy A decrepit and pitiful case, He was caught up in a nervous frenzy With a mask of pain etched on his face.

dog, injury, memory

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Packrat in the Attic

I suddenly quit sleepin' One night 'bout half past one, The house was cavin' in on me I knew my time had come.

packrat, junk, attic

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

A Lonely Grave

On a little rise, in a little flat In a canyon of San Juan, Stood a pile of a dozen crude hewn stones By a maker's hand long gone. I've ridden past unthinking Without a second glance.

grave, brother, memory

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

Perversities of Mortality

Man is a creature All woe begun Who ponders the many All deeds he's done.

death, life, humanity

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

Throwback

Somewhere in about every forest, Is a Gent that ain't up to date. He don't give a damn for the modern scene Born a hundred 'n fifty years late. He's simply known as "The Trapper, Squaw lover, or Mountain Man".

history, smell, skunk

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

I'd Do It All Again

An old cowhand went ridin' out one strange foreboding day. The air was tense, the sun was glazed in the strangest sort of way. His ole cowhorse was puffin', so he stopped upon a risse, When the strangest apparition started passin' b'fore his eyes. There before his startled gaze a panorama spread, Of a scene that perished long ago, his Daddy's old homestead.

marriage, nursing, family

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

Just Another Dogie Cowkid

It was 'bout the middle part of June, on a quiet purty day, In a cowcamp, fifty miles from town, showed up a different stray.

help, horseshoe, cowhand

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

Repentance, Cowboy Style

Way down between the rivers In the wilds ofSouth San Juan Past Green springs, Lakes, and Slickhorne Way to Hell and gone, Where slickrocks grow like tumors And good times ain't never now And it takes a thousand acres Just to feed one stinkin' cow,

roundup, bulls, herd

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

Fin Bayles

The Devil Take His Own

You've all heard of the "League of Nations", Those that have been to school; Well, the name was really made famous By the Bluff Bench livestock pool.

trail ride, kingpin, cattle tycoon

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

100

Fin Bayles

Desperation and Innovation

Feel for that poor little ranch gal Who, just to keep her family fed Has to chase some durned chicken all over the yard Then chop off the squawkin' thing's head.

chicken, razor, chase

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

101

Fin Bayles

A Cowboy's Toughest Day

The sun was bright, the sky was blue, the world it felt like spring, With nature's new a-bustin' loose, the songbirds high a-wing. I tok a ride to distant range just to have a look, Ridin' a big hay-burner, a bay Steeldust named Spook. The horse was fresh and frisky and not because I should, I slacked the reins, give him his head, to run 'cause he felt good.

horse, kill, sand

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

103

Fin Bayles

A Cowboy's Farewell

So long now, old Buddy It's time for you to go, Just when we get our notice Is something we don't know.

eulogy, death, funeral

Screwbean Perspective

FOLK COLL 11 B-80

104

Fin Bayles

Eulogy to a Man

A Man is come at morning's hour He's blessed with strenght and young, His task's an unknown quantity His journey's just begun. His pathway's smooth, it's markings bright It gently leads downhill, What is his course, where is he bound What's there to try his will.

death, eulogy, speech

Pat Richardson, Unhobbled

FOLK COLL 11 R-50

Pat Richardson

My Brother

He lays there by the stove lickin' places that's obscene; I guess I'll give him credit 'least he's tryna keep 'em clean.

dog, humor, brother

Pat Richardson, Unhobbled

FOLK COLL 11 R-50

Pat Richardson

Suicide

The old cowboy was an ornery cuss, he cheated, stole, and lied; he didn't have a conscience and you couldn't hurt his pride.

veteran, suicide, neighbors

Pat Richardson, Unhobbled

FOLK COLL 11 R-50

Pat Richardson

When Old Buck Died

Benny loved his buckskin horse, and when he died, with great remorse, Ben hauled him down to the taxidermy shop. He said, "I want him looking real; one more thing, put on some wheels, and a Briggs and Stratton so he'll start and stop."

taxidermy, robot, horse