Poems by Carl Sandburg

Song Cycle by Sam Raphling (b. 1910)

?. Maybe  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Maybe he believes me, maybe not
 [ ... ]

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1. Cool Tombs  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into the tombs, he forgot 
the copperheads and the assassin ... in the dust, in the cool tombs.	
 
And Ulysses Grant lost all thought of con men and Wall Street, 
cash and collateral turned ashes ... in the dust, in the cool tombs.	
 
Pocahontas' body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in November
or a pawpaw in May, did she wonder? does she remember? ... 
in the dust, in the cool tombs?	
 
Take any streetful of people buying clothes and groceries, 
cheering a hero or throwing confetti and blowing tin horns ...
tell me if the lovers are losers ... tell me if any get more 
than the lovers ... in the dust ... in the cool tombs.

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2. Fog  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

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3. Gone  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Everybody loved Chick Lorimer in our town.
                    Far off
               Everybody loved her.
So we all love a wild girl keeping a hold
On a dream she wants.
Nobody knows now where Chick Lorimer went.
Nobody knows why she packed her trunk. . a few
     old things
And is gone,
                    Gone with her little chin
                    Thrust ahead of her
                    And her soft hair blowing careless
                    From under a wide hat,
Dancer, singer, a laughing passionate lover.

Were there ten men or a hundred hunting Chick?
Were there five men or fifty with aching hearts?
               Everybody loved Chick Lorimer.
                    Nobody knows where she's gone.

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4. Mag  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
I wish you never quit your job and came along with me.
I wish we never bought a license and a white dress
For you to get married in the day we ran off to a minister
And told him we would love each other and take care of
     each other
Always and always long as the sun and the rain lasts anywhere.
Yes, I'm wishing now you lived somewhere away from here
And I was a bum on the bumpers a thousand miles away
     dead broke.
          I wish the kids had never come
          And rent and coal and clothes to pay for
          And a grocery man calling for cash,
          Every day cash for beans and prunes.
          I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
          I wish to God the kids had never come.

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Total word count: 434