FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

71

Buck Ramsey

Comes A Caller (Being Dunder's first arrival at the Star Cross.)

The darkening dusk comes on the place. The clear, still air will carry The creature sounds of summer night that whisper from the prairie.

rider, cowboy, camp

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

83

Buck Ramsey

Cowboy Went Acourtin'

This bunkhouse talk of cowboy romance Left other whirls in second place: Poor Dobbin Brown sat all in silence When Yucca Spear strung out the ways Old Dobbin choused the Widow Horton, A proper lady he went courtin'.

cowboy, romance, dance

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

87

Buck Ramsey

Dear Tara McCarty:

I got your letter in the mail The last day of November. If I eve got a better one I dang sure don't remember.

letter, poem, memories

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

91

Buck Ramsey

Dog Poem

My daughter's darling little dogs Have found a lair of baby rabbits.

dog, daughter, rabbits

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

95

Buck Ramsey

Dunder Defining (Being a one-sided conversation with the Kid about his daddy.)

"Yeah, he'd be called a 'daisy hand' If this was bygone days Before the meaning changed their names And cowboys changed their ways.

dad, ranch, cowboy

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

101

Buck Ramsey

Names And Callings (Being old Dunder getting something else off his chest.)

"They're always atellin' us who is a cowboy. It's always somebody who ain't. They put our good name on the damnedest of fellers -- it passes without a complaint.

cowboy, stereotype, anger

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

107

Buck Ramsey

Elegy by a Prairie Grave

funeral, sun, prairie

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

111

Buck Ramsey

Garcia's Promise

To mountains he comes wounded And at war circumstance, In search of higher footing where a man-at-arms can stand. his foe is like a shadow That is always at his heels, And as he climbs and looks back, all he sees is burning fields.

mountains, climber, battle

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

115

Buck Ramsey

Hat In Hand, Approaching The Dieties

Sunning sunning inner prisms in the prison of my eyes Pictures pink pictures purple Sun across the slight cloud skies

sun, farm, life

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

119

Buck Ramsey

Mavis Makes A Deal?

Mavis McCarley was known as a woman with talents you'd look for when you had a need Not only did Mavis McCarley have talents, but the disposition for doing the deed.

waiter, bar, challenge

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

123

Buck Ramsey

Nice Man

The milkman walks into the silken threads Of a phrase of mine Somewhere midway.

milk, kindness, chat

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

127

Buck Ramsey

One Seraphic Ride

As dark was spreading on the air Old Dunder came in grinning Like some lit candled pumpkin face, And well before they cleaned their plates He loosed a yarn he didn't care Would keep them up unspinning.

ride, horses, angel

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

137

Buck Ramsey

Poem For A Boy

Mind to be the boy That would one day be the man. Should you set aside your joy For some duty's plan?

boy, advice, plan

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

139

Buck Ramsey

The Terrorist

If I were a poet, a prominent one Who might at times be asked for interviews, I would be true to the usual type And ready with answers, and if I were, As surely I would be, asked a question About what the function of poetry is, I would say, perhaps, dangerous things, say -

terrorist, history, anger

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

139

Buck Ramsey

Season Song

If I'd go back Then back I'd go On caroled air On season snow.

season, walk, bells

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

144

Buck Ramsey

Skysailing

Oh, God! Hawk am I, Soaring on a ground sigh And earth breath. Shunning all the horsetail wisps, Searching out the cloudswell lifts, I skyward press.

sky, cloud, plants

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

146

Buck Ramsey

"If" Poem for Another Time's Child

I'm singing to tell you the best way I can It's as hard to be a boy as to be a man; While wide-eyed with wonder you wrestle with pain Men'll yearn for the sunshine and pray for the rain.

song, life, advice

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

150

Buck Ramsey

Songdog

When young I saw a coyote spring in air And arc and tumble in a backward flip, Then chase his tail and wallow in his joy, Exalting with his private yap and yip.

coyote, desert, watching

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

154

Buck Ramsey

Symphony Notes

Bless those who toil in silence for the sound Who clothe in wood and brass the cosmic hum Who start vibrations of the last song By setting strings in order for the strum.

symphony, music, orchestra

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-47

160

Buck Ramsey

(Texas Elections and) Spring Rejections

Later in winter my old neighbor Stood stooped and still among his elms, Awaiting, straining for, signs of spriong

texas, plains, neighbors

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

160

Buck Ramsey

That Ye Be Not Angry

Now, Johnny had got him a spankin' at school for misstreatin' a little girl's pigtail, So as he was drawin' nigh home late that day, a poor chicken he kicked 'cross a cowtrail.

anger, farm animals, mother

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

162

Buck Ramsey

The Box Dinner (where Fiddle and Fair first meet)

He topped his breakfast sopping bread through puddled syrup of sorghum And mulled the problem once again -- his church, it had no organ. His parson missus hymned right in and harmonized his worry, "The Lord may see the sparrow fall, but He would have to hurry to catch the noise your whole flock makes in congregation singing, And still he'd think it jays and crows hard at their best mudslinging.

dinner auction, date, ribbon, draft

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

174

Buck Ramsey

The Christmas Waltz

Winter is here and the old year is passing, The sun in its circle winds far in the south, It's time to bring cheer to a cold snowbound cowcamp, It's Christmastree time of the year for the house.

christmas, waltz, celebration

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

176

Buck Ramsey

The Father's Lament

Bows and laces Little faces Flatter as they Frame the smiles

lace, daughters, flirting

Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory

Buck Ramsey

FOLK COLL 11 R-48

180

Buck Ramsey

The Importance of Being

Had one breath of bee Forgot to join the air To longer as before;

existence, nature, reality