FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection
| Date of Items: | 1890-present | Register Prepared by: | Randy Williams and Susan Gross, April 2004 |
| Register Updated by: | Randy Williams, 23 December 2009 |
| Excel database transfered to MYSQL and uploaded (replacing PHP data): | Colin Jackson, Fall 2010 |
| MYSQL database updated: | Randy Williams, January 2012 |
| Linear Feet: | 20 |
Historical Note & Provenance
Folk Coll 11 is Utah State University's cowboy poetry collection. The collection, originally created by a generation donation by the L. J. and Mary Skaggs Foundation, includes books gathered during a fieldwork project in the early 1980s to document cowboy poetry in the U.S. west (see Folk Coll 11f). From this important fieldwork project came the impetus for the first Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in January 1985 in Elko, Nevada. Since that time, each January, the Fife Folklore Archives staff take the collection and Access database (that details each book, poem, author, first line and key words), to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering for offsite use. Through University purchases and generation donations from poets and collectors, this collection continues to grow.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of 20 linear feet of books on cowboy poetry, including press and self published works. The collection can be accessed through USU Libraries online catalog.
As well, poem titles and keywords found in each book in the collection are included in the database below. To use, type in the search term. Tip: Try and use an uncommon
word from the poem to ensure less "hits." For instance, if you enter "boots" you will get many hits; but if you enter "bones" you will most liley get fewer "hits" or poems and find the item you seek faster.
To return to the search page, click "home" at the bottom of the page.
Search:
Poetry table.
First Previous Next Last| ID | Book Title | Composer | Index | Pages | Author | Poem Title | First Lines | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26272 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 49 | William Henry Ogilvie | The Pearl of Them All | Gaily in front of the stockwhip the horses come galloping home, leaping and bucking and playing with sides all a lather of foam; | journey, gay, promise, tears |
| 26273 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 50 | Jim Sagel | Talking Horses | Uncle Steven rolls his own as we sit in the last sun under skeeletal alamos and talk horses how his bitch of a mare throws everyone except him | horse races, wins, Indians, San Juan |
| 26274 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 52 | S. Omar Barker | A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer | I ain't much good at prayin' , and you may not know me, lord- I ain't much seen in churches where they preach Thy Holy Word, but you may have observed me out here on the lonely plains, | miracle, freedom, hearts of men, tears |
| 26275 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 53 | Katie Andraski | Lunging a Filly | As I swiveled behind my coming yearling I watched how she eased around me like water over cobbles. She flowed away from me like I was a hill. | ducked, salmmed, kicks, joy |
| 26276 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 54 | Ted Kooser | A Winte Morning | A farmhouse window far back from the highway speaks to the darkness in a small, sure voice. Against his stillness, only a kettle's whisper, | small, blue, flame, ring |
| 26277 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 55 | Linda Hussa | Sheepherder | Basco boy, you left your sheep bedded walked the many ridges through a dark where lightning warned you back to stand outside the homesteader cabin | rain, teacher, dance, dogs |
| 26278 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 57 | Joan Shaddox Isom | Companions | When Old Age raps on my window and beckons with bony finger, I'll not follow her behind closed shutters to measure out my life with nose drops | dignity, popsicles, song, dusk, cry |
| 26279 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 58 | Buckeye Blake | Between Brandings | Ibuprofen and Early Times, a frozen slab of home-cured bacon wrapped in a clean white T-shirt tucked in the hollow of your back dulls the knife | cortisone, surgery, lumbar |
| 26280 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 59 | Carolyn Dufurrena | Bog Hot Meadow/First Pass | Silence cocoons the morning stretches the horizon snow on ridges blue with distance coiling ribbon of dust across the valley: | sky, earth, salt grass, trot, gates |
| 26281 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 60 | Bruce Kiskaddon | The Time to Decide | Did you ever stand on the ledges, on the brink of the great plateau and look from their jagged edges on the country that lay below? | patient, vision, pity |
| 26282 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 62 | Carolyn Dufurrena | Fixing the Spring | High in a granite notch an avalanche of wild roses hides the springbox. I balance on sharp boulders poling up between hummocks in the bog, | water, chuffing, icy, livestock, antelope, deer |
| 26283 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 63 | Robert Frost | To the Thawing Wind | Come with rain, O lound Southwester! Bring the singer, bring the nester; Give the buried flower a dream; Make the settled snowbank steam; | melt ice, window, crucifix |
| 26284 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 65 | William Henry Ogilvie | The Men of Open Spaces | These are the men with the sun-tanned faces and the kneen far-sighted eyes- the men of the open spaces, and the land where the mirage lies. | fire, drought, mate, throne, pride |
| 26285 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 66 | Henry Lawson | Down the River | I've done with joys and misery an' why should I repine? There's no one knows the past but me an' that ol' dog o' mine. We camp an' walk, an' camp an' walk, | smoke, dog, sunset, johnny-cake |
| 26286 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 67 | Luci Tapahonso | All I Want | All I want is the bread to turn out like hers just once brown crust soft, airy insides rich and round that is all. | flour, bowl, dough, windy |
| 26289 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 70 | J.B. Allen | Grist | There's a place back in them hills that's sorta hid and hard to find where a spring of crystal water leaves the rock and starts to wind | greed, justice, green, illness |
| 26288 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 68 | Buck Ramsey | The Slipper Waltz | The Meeting; Kid Tybo Tremain of the old Star Cross outfit had yet his last measure to grow, but he rode like a tick on brush country cow dog | dream, angle, silly, felon |
| 26290 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 71 | Buck Ramsey | Child of the Plains | I write from trees and mountain rocks; There aren't too many on your plain; I think of you and think of grass that covers place and place again | star, trees, sight, kind |
| 26291 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 73 | Luci Tapahonso | Blue Horses Rush In | Before the birth, she moved and pushed inside her mother. Her heart pounded quickly and we recognized the sound of horses running: the thundering of hooves on the desert floor. | baby, moonlight, Idaho, Montana, Chamisa Bah Edmo |
| 26294 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 75 | Savanna Scout Cox | Pack Mule | I'm a strong girl I can throw bags of salt over one shoulder I can pick up propane bottles and baby calves I pushed the door open like Atlas | emotion, stumble, scar, stubborn, resilient |
| 26293 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 74 | Luci Tapahonso | Sheepherder Blues | "Went to NCC for a year," she said, "was alright. There was some drinking, fights. I just kept low. It was alright" | surprise, Gallup, Oklahoma City, bus |
| 26295 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 76 | Larry McWhorter | Waitin' on the Drive | It's four o'clock when the cook's bell calls, Raisin' cowboys up from their dream. I pull on my boots and watch the red dust come puffin' up through the worn seams. | wagon, fog, caprock, drive |
| 26296 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 78 | Vess Quinlan | The Crossing | Rolling east in a brand new, black and green, Ford 1951 with Uncle Dell and Helen. I am past ready for real adventure. | Colorado, graduate, antelope, cattle |
| 26297 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 79 | Vess Quinlan | Futures | She watches him practice making his loop land flat and open around the salt block. He will soon be heading steers for his daddy at jackpot ropings | burn, action, borken bones, smile, tobacco |
| 26298 | Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets | C.J. Hadley | FC 11 H-59 | 79 | Vess Quinlan | Passing the Mantle | How small he was and how he struggled with the work; He irrigated, fed, doctored, and learned, as I had, the difference between right and close, | approval, strange, simple, passage, son |