Cowboys' Prayer, Albuquerque, NM, circa 1939

Subjects: Horses Religious & Devotional Life Workers & Occupations
Card type: Linen
Date: c. 1939 (Linen)

Back of Cowboys' Prayer, Albuquerque, NM, circa 1939, c. 1939 linen postcard — Back

About this postcard

Two cowboys on horseback watch a herd spread across a grassy plain, with desert plants and clouds below. The poem "Cowboys' Prayer" accompanies the scene, a first-person appeal for an open-air life, honesty, and guidance on the "long, dim trail." It is printed as "Author Unknown," though the verse is often attributed to Badger Clark, whose Western poems circulated widely in the early twentieth century. Its plainspoken piety and the cowboy's freedom reflect the romantic Western imagery that remained popular in the 1930s.

Postcard Details

Message

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PublisherCurteich-Chicago

COWBOYS' PRAYER O Lord, I've never lived where churches grow; I've loved creation better as it stood That day you finished it, so long ago, And looked upon your work and called it good. Just let me live my life as I've begun! And give me work that's open to the sky; Make me a partner of the wind and sun, And I won't ask a life that's soft and high. Make me as big and open as the plains; As honest as the horse between my knees; Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains; Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze. Just keep an eye on all that's done and said; Just right me sometime when I turn aside; And guide me on the long, dim trail ahead— That stretches upward towards the Great Divide. Author Unknown

Addressed to

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Postcard record

Publisher	Curteich-Chicago
Series	N-25
Condition	Very good
Place mentioned	Albuquerque, NM
Publisher	Curteich-Chicago, Curt Teich & Co., Chicago, IL, Chicago, IL
Notes	Linen texture; printed code N-25 at top left; no white border. No postmark. Divided-back linen card with Genuine Curteich-Chicago 'C.T. Art-Colortone' imprint (9A-H768), distributed by Southwest Post Card Co., Box 685, Albuquerque, N.M., circa late 1930s-1940s. No stamp, no address, no handwritten message; only a pencil dealer mark '#59 1-' at lower right.

Cite this card

Cowboys' Prayer, Albuquerque, NM, circa 1939, postcard, c. 1939. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/cowboys-prayer-albuquerque-nm-circa-1939. Accessed November 2, 2026.