Far and Away

The Road and the End

by Carl Sandburg

I shall foot it
Down the roadway in the dusk,
Where shapes of hunger wander
And the fugitives of pain go by.

I shall foot it
In the silence of the morning,
See the night slur into dawn,
Hear the slow great winds arise
Where tall trees flank the way
And shoulder toward the sky.

The broken boulders by the road
Shall not commemorate my ruin.
Regret shall be the gravel under foot.
I shall watch for
Slim birds swift of wing
That go where wind and ranks of thunder
Drive the wild processionals of rain.

The dust of the travelled road
Shall touch my hands and face.

Out of Gas

Out of gas    Out of road    Out of car     I don't know how I'm going to go and I had a drink the other day    Opinions were like kittens I was giving them away      I had a drink the other day      I had a lot to say     And I said:  You will come down soon too  You will come down too soon   You will come down soon too    Soon enough you will come down, come down     You will come down soon too      You will come down too soon        You'll come down, come down      You'll come down, come down

 

 Modest Mouse 

Red Angel

Native Woman

by A. F. Moritz

Her hair back from the wide round face
flows, almost a girl’s, so thick,
caught back in combs, racing
and curling through them with blackest
vigor, although it is pure white.
Cracked face, dusk-colored: not red
but with a deep red struggling under
the coming night. The eyes shift quickly,
the subway train jerks and rattles,
green vinyl, light flickering, silver poles.
Eyes driven from ancient calm,
which may fear but is never frantic
and says nothing, such as looks out
from the old Indian portraits—calm is
the one thing missing from the beauty
of her face in the black window.
Those unresting eyes there
talk plainly: there’s no money
at home, men young and old go wrong,
life almost at its end is
still day by day harried and perplexed.

Beware of Darkness

 With Thanks to George Harrison for Title

   Watch out now, take care
Beware of falling swingers
Dropping all around you
The pain that often mingles
In your fingertips
Beware of darkness

Watch out now, take care
Beware of the thoughts that linger
Winding up inside your head
The hopelessness around you
In the dead of night

Beware of sadness
It can hit you
It can hurt you
Make you sore and what is more
That is not what you are here for

Watch out now, take care
Beware of soft shoe shufflers
Dancing down the sidewalks
As each unconscious sufferer
Wanders aimlessly
Beware of Maya

Watch out now, take care
Beware of greedy leaders
They take you where you should not go
While Weeping Atlas Cedars
They just want to grow, grow and grow
Beware of darkness (beware of darkness)
 

 

Got Milk?

Eden, Then and Now
by Ruth Stone
In ’29 before the dust storms
sandblasted Indianapolis,
we believed in the milk company.
Milk came in glass bottles.
We spread dye-colored butter,
now connected to cancer.
We worked seven to seven
with no overtime pay;
pledged allegiance every day,
pitied the starving Armenians.
One morning in the midst of plenty,
there were folks out of context,
who were living on nothing.
Some slept in shacks
on the banks of the river.
This phenomenon investors said
would pass away.
My father worked for the daily paper.
He was a union printer;
lead slugs and blue smoke.
He worked with hot lead
at a two-ton machine,
in a low-slung seat;
a green-billed cap
pulled low on his forehead.
He gave my mother a dollar a day.
You could say we were rich.
This was the Jazz Age.

The Day Before Tomorrow

Written by n. finn & t. finn Take the Weather with You. Walking round the room singing Stormy weather At 57 mount pleasant street Now its the same room but everythings different  You can fight the sleep but not the dream.  Things ain't cooking in my kitchen Strange affliction washes over me  Julius caesar and the roman empire Couldnt conquer the blue sky   Theres a small boat made of china        Going nowhere on the mantlepiece     Do I lie like a loungeroom lizard    Or do I sing like a bird released Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you, Everywhere you go you always take the weather. Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you, Take the weather,take the weather with you.

Small Countries

Small Countries

by James Galvin

In defense of whatever happens next, the navy of flat-bottomed pop-
corn clouds steams over like they are floating down a river we're un-
der. To the west, red cliffs, more pasture, the blue Medicine Bow with
stretchmarked snowfields, quartzite faces like sunny bone. I'm worried
about Lyle getting back from town with his oxygen, but then I see him
through binoculars turn the Studebaker, antlike, off the county road
and up the four-mile grade, so small down there that I want to imagine
his hands on the wheel, still strong, his creased blue jeans and high-
top shoes I know he wears to town. He turns off the road on a small
knoll about halfway up and stops the truck, facing the mountains. He
still looks small against so much space, but I can see his left arm and
shoulder and the brim of his hat lowered as he lights a smoke and
looks off toward the mountains, and small countries of light and dark
rush across the prairie towards him and over him.

Schools Out

School's Out

 Alice Cooper

 Well we got no choice
All the girls and boys
Makin all that noise
'Cause they found new toys
Well we can't salute ya
Can't find a flag
If that don't suit ya
That's a drag

School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all

School's out forever
School's out for summer
School's out with fever
School's out completely

 

 

Custer’s Last Stand

'You Can't Buy Shoes in a Painting'
by Jill Osier

You can't even buy a soda. You can only
see these things, see a mother steer
her son to the car, his head cocked
licking his ice cream.

Earlier, driving, trying to keep
between two cornfields, I couldn't see myself
into a map, couldn't be anywhere in it,
though I knew all the patient states
between us.

Pigeons sit high on a mill's peaked roof,
spaced even as beads. They can stand that
close to each other, but looking at them
you wouldn't know it. Would you.

Put Me In Coach

  JOHN FOGERTY
from 'Put me in Coach

Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all – a moment in the sun;
(pop) It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye!