Chicago
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse,
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
poem by Carl Sandburg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Laughing
I'm laughing at your funny face
I'm laughing at this funny place
I'm laughing in my space
I'm laughing at a fast pace
I'm laughing and cannot stop
I'm laughing feeling the bop
I'm laughing at your top
I'm laughing with a cop
My stomach hurts
My cheeks are sore
Yet I want to laugh some more
Just want to laugh day and night
Want to laugh 'cause it feels alright
I'm laughing with Pat
I'm laughing at the cat
I'm laughing at the mat
I'm laughing as the cat sat
Giggle, Giggle, Giggle
Giggle, Giggle, Giggle
Giggle, Giggle.
©Copyright 2010 Willmington. All rights reserved
poem by Somniator Moon
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Finding Chicago
I wanted to write poetry like Carl Sandburg.
I wanted to write about big cities and small towns,
about open prairies and rivers in the sky.
I wanted to write about the people:
plumbers, politicians, poets,
but I’d never been east of Tucson.
So I quit my dead end job,
closed out my savings account, all 600 dollars,
and went to Chicago in search of a poem.
Chicago—City of the Big Shoulders, wrote Sandburg.
But I couldn’t find it.
I found Chicago falling down around an old black man
leaning on his battered bass case, the way you lean
on a friend when you’re in need. And Thomas Jefferson
Brown was a man in need, shoulders sagging under
the weight of six decades of back alley blues bars
and his thirst for blended whiskey.
Chicago—Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler,
wrote Sandburg.
But I couldn’t find it.
I found Chicago in a rusted heap of railroad cars, twisted
tracks and 55 gallon drums where bums built their fires.
Factories and warehouses empty, workers sitting in nearby
bars drinking beer, expecting checks at the end of the week.
Chicago—Stormy, husky, brawling, wrote Sandburg.
But I couldn’t find it.
I found Chicago shimmering in the shadows of towering
concrete, steel and glass along 32nd Street, poets reading
in bookstores and coffee houses, children marching
to museums, women with slim hips in black silk gowns,
men in tuxedos and Italian shoes, dressed for the theater.
I wanted to write poetry like Sandburg.
But I couldn’t find his Chicago.
poem by Clifton King
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Everybodys Laughing
Sammy lerner / ben oakland
Everybodys laughing
Yes everybodys laughing
They know that you and I are through
And everybodys laughing
I told the world you loved me
And bragged about it proudly
But since they know its over
Theyre laughing at me loudly.
People love to linger
So they can point a finger
And tear apart a gal whose heart
Was taken through the wringer
It we could start all over
The laugh might be on them
But meanwhile
Everybodys laughing
It we could start all over
The laugh might be on them
But meanwhile
Everybodys laughing
song performed by by Billie Holiday
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Laughter In The Rain.
We use to have it,
Long long time ago.
We use to reach for it.
But now it’s no more.
It was our pride,
Having laughter in the rain,
With nothing to hide,
We made it plain.
How stunning it was laughing in the rain.
Laugh like a drain,
Like a baby with no stain.
Yes!
I felt like a child
Felt it like a lady that is not wild.
Having laughter in the rain with you,
Hand in hand walking on the street with you.
In all times you hold me tight.
To make me feel alright.
Laughter always in my mouth.
`Cause you always with me no matter what.
How stunning,
Having laughter in the rain.
No cunning,
We made every thing plain.
Sit on the couch laughing and laughing
Laughing and laughing.
To ease the pain.
Having laughter in the rain.
Laughter in the rain,
Sadness of our pain.
It was a pleasure.
It is a treasure.
And I am sure
It is nothing you will not want to measure.
Our laughter in the rain.
The many tears we cried over and over again.
It is something maybe good.
Everyone thought we could,
Take it to the next level if we would.
I remember thousand of the droplet tears
The holding and cuddling to take off the fears.
Titter to make us laugh.
Titillate me to get me down.
Laughter in the rain.
Took away our pain.
But now it is no more.
We lost it long time ago.
It was our pride.
It was with us every time we ride
Laughter in the rain.
poem by Chinwendu Ibeh
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Are you laughing now?
Are you laughing now,
Now that I'm out of this town?
Are you laughing now,
Now that I take my finally bow?
Did you ever try to show kindness to me,
And understand the person you see?
Are you laughing now?
poem by Alice Spakrs
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Tale of Three Cities
New York blasted London blasted
Singapore -
Ripped off each other's metaphoric balls,
Crumbling walls.
Priapic city monoliths -
Blue-sky scraping bastards -
Shout about their height (but really length) .
V8 arseholes didn't care -
Pumping shit into the air,
So long as they were always there to
Fart aloud a smoggy cloud,
Laughing at the weak asthmatic,
Humoured that it seems traumatic.
Watch the greedy cities oozing
Chair-bound fat committees, though they
Look a bunch of titties as they
Waffle on about the pound.
Ever thought to look around and see
That they were dead?
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010
city city city city city city
city city city city city city
city city city city city city
city city city city city city
city city city city city city
city city city city city city
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Im A Rebel
They say I wont make it to the top of the hill
Wont take the fruit of a tree
And evrybody says Im out for the kill
Theyre all laughing at me
Theyre all laughing at me
Im a rebel - rebel - dont you just know it
Im a rebel - rebel
And theyre all laughing at me
They say Im a danger to the public and all
I only wish they would see
Im just a product of a screwed up world - but theyre all
Theyre all laughing at me
But theyre all laughing at me
Im a rebel - rebel - dont you just know it
Im a rebel - rebel - dont you just know it
Im a rebel - rebel
But theyre all laughing at me
Never ever wash my old blue jeans
And brush the smile off my face
But still Im a member of the
Human race - human race - human race - human race
Im a rebel - rebel - dont you just know it
Im a rebel - rebel - dont you just know it
Im a rebel - rebel - dont you just know it
Im a rebel - rebel
And theyre all laughing at me
Im a rebel
song performed by by U. D. O.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Angry Hills
heaven it shines in the dawn's early light
in a movement out in the brush
far out!
watering graves of the people who read in the book
of forbidden content
tragedy!
in a gentle way hear the angry hills
in a gentle way hear them laughing
imagination under attack for the
pictures I can't even think
i don't even know them
in a gentle way hear the angry hills
in a gentle way hear them laughing
in a gentle way
in a gentle way hear the angry hills
in a gentle way i am laughing
yes i am laughing
i am laughing
yes i am laughing
song performed by by Iggy Pop
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Not the Girl I Used to Be
Tall, skinny, with a shy smile
And standin’ on the sidelines
That’s the girl I used to be
But I’m inching closer to the middle of the game
Laughing with wild friends
And dancing at parties…
I’m wilder, freer
I finally have a name
I’m the girl who laughs
The girl who listens
The carefree girl but not too loud
The laughing girl with the spring in her step
Not the girl I used to be
So now I want to be one of “Them”,
Not somewhere where I won’t be found…
I think “Them” will save me,
“Them” will hear me out
But “You” are better! Tell me that, assure me
So I don’t turn to “Them”…because
I’m wilder, freer
I finally have a name
I’m the girl who laughs
The girl who listens
The carefree girl but not too loud
The laughing girl with the spring in her step
Not the girl I used to be
In Praise of Ego
In carefree, laughing, joyful mood –
let’s praise the ego, to its face!
Our most faithful mate throughout our life;
with us longer than our parents or our children are;
at our heels at all times, proud of head and tail,
saying to the world that ‘I belong to him! ’;
faithful as a dog; and cunning as a cat;
between them, running our un-mastered lives;
(and like the cosy purring cat you stroke upon your lap,
ego's the secret dark night-hunter, out to kill all life..)
ego, more awake than we ourselves,
never missing a living moment;
every heart-beat an opportunity;
sharper entrepreneur than any city slicker:
‘what’s in it for me? ’; there is no trick,
no turn, no market swing, that ego can’t exploit and profit from;
so let’s praise ego to its face; see the Creator’s own full force,
brilliant and magnificent, manifested, used, in ego’s skills…
but know, and know we know, its lifetime’s bitter secret:
for all its skills, its energies are stolen fuel…:
moment by moment sapping secretly,
the consciousness, the wisdom, happiness,
that seem just out of our elusive reach..
So – as we watch a child, so innocent,
playing its merry games of fantasy,
running round itself in playground and in park,
we laughing in parental love, sing out those magic words:
‘I’m watching you…! ’
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Tragic
(a. bell / v. clarke)
Speak. spell.
Whats that word again?
In. out.
Of my head again.
Clear. cut.
Charmed Im sure again.
Merrity!
I wish for thought.
Oh, wise men indeed,
Are fools who believe.
Her heart on my sleeve,
Is laughing at me.
Best left unsaid;
Theres no truth in whats said.
Cloud. fog.
Looks like rain again.
Glass. wall.
Looks could kill again.
Clock. face.
Half past two again.
Turn again.
And how time flies.
Oh, wise men indeed,
Are fools who believe.
Her heart on my sleeve,
Is laughing at me.
Best left unsaid;
Theres no truth in whats said.
Dream. world.
In my pawn again.
Hot. cold.
Fingers burn again.
Teardrop.
To the floor again.
Cruelty.
How real is real?
Oh, wise men indeed,
Are fools who believe.
My heart on my sleeve,
Is laughing at me.
Best left unsaid
Theres no truth in whats said.
Oh, wise men indeed,
Are fools who believe.
My heart on my sleeve,
Is laughing at me.
Best left unsaid
Theres no truth in whats said.
song performed by by Erasure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Laughing Boy
Laughing boy keep movin
Keep movin, keep movin
Laughing boy keep movin
Keep movin, keep movin
Find a clown and grind him down
He may just be laughing at you
An unprincipled and uncommitted
Clown can hardly be permitted to
Sit around and laugh at what
The decent people try to do
Laughing boy keep movin
Keep movin, keep movin
Laughing boy keep movin
Keep movin, keep movin
song performed by by Randy Newman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
What A Beautiful Sound
beautiful sounds
that stir the heart
free awakening soul
lift flight sky spirit
sound of river running wide unified flowing
sound of creek running downhill leaping splashing
sound of stillness crisp haunting in still mountain morning
sound of wind timeless moving over through forest trees growing
sound of whispers retracting as first soft snow flutters falling
sound of soft rain tender kissing warm earth embraces water waiting
sound of rain heavy droplets embracing dancing love symphony greeting
sound of storm clouds fast running painting sky black spiraling
sound of thunder freedom singing vibrating through poet laughing
sound of morning awaking to gentle joy of my young daughters laughing
a beautiful sound is bliss joy of young daughters happiness laughing
a beautiful sound is healthy children fed soul wonder bliss laughing
a beautiful sound is our well fed children in joy mind song laughing
a beautiful sound is God smiling with me in child mind song laughing
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Avenue Of The Allies
This is the song of the wind as it came
Tossing the flags of the nations to flame:
_I am the breath of God. I am His laughter.
I am His Liberty. That is my name._
So it descended, at night, on the city.
So it went lavishing beauty and pity,
Lighting the lordliest street of the world
With half of the banners that earth has unfurled;
Over the lamps that are brighter than stars.
Laughing aloud on its way to the wars,
Proud as America, sweeping along
Death and destruction like notes in a song,
Leaping to battle as man to his mate,
Joyous as God when he moved to create,--
Never was voice of a nation so glorious,
Glad of its cause and afire with its fate!
Never did eagle on mightier pinion
Tower to the height of a brighter dominion,
Kindling the hope of the prophets to flame,
Calling aloud on the deep as it came,
_Cleave me a way for an army with banners.
I am His Liberty. That is my name._
Know you the meaning of all they are doing?
Know you the light that their soul is pursuing?
Know you the might of the world they are making,
This nation of nations whose heart is awaking?
What is this mingling of peoples and races?
Look at the wonder and joy in their faces!
Look how the folds of the union are spreading!
Look, for the nations are come to their wedding.
How shall the folk of our tongue be afraid of it?
England was born of it. England was made of it,
Made of this welding of tribes into one,
This marriage of pilgrims that followed the sun!
Briton and Roman and Saxon were drawn
By winds of this Pentecost, out of the dawn,
Westward, to make her one people of many;
But here is a union more mighty than any.
Know you the soul of this deep exultation?
Know you the word that goes forth to this nation?
_I am the breath of God. I am His Liberty.
Let there be light over all His creation._
Over this Continent, wholly united,
They that were foemen in Europe are plighted.
Here, in a league that our blindness and pride
Doubted and flouted and mocked and denied,
Dawns the Republic, the laughing, gigantic
Europe, united, beyond the Atlantic.
That is America, speaking one tongue,
Acting her epics before they are sung,
Driving her rails from the palms to the snow,
Through States that are greater than Emperors know,
Forty-eight States that are empires in might,
But ruled by the will of one people tonight,
Nerved as one body, with net-works of steel,
Merging their strength in the one Commonweal,
Brooking no poverty, mocking at Mars,
Building their cities to talk with the stars.
Thriving, increasing by myriads again
Till even in numbers old Europe may wane.
How shall a son of the England they fought
Fail to declare the full pride of his thought,
Stand with the scoffers who, year after year,
Bring the Republic their half-hidden sneer?
Now, as in beauty she stands at our side,
Who shall withhold the full gift of his pride?
Not the great England who knows that her son,
Washington, fought her, and Liberty won.
England, whose names like the stars in their station,
Stand at the foot of that world's Declaration,--
Washington, Livingston, Langdon, she claims them,
It is her right to be proud when she names them,
Proud of that voice in the night as it came,
Tossing the flags of the nations to flame:
_I am the breath of God. I am His laughter.
I am His Liberty. That is my name._
Flags, in themselves, are but rags that are dyed.
Flags, in that wind, are like nations enskied.
See, how they grapple the night as it rolls
And trample it under like triumphing souls.
Over the city that never knew sleep,
Look at the riotous folds as they leap.
Thousands of tri-colors, laughing for France,
Ripple and whisper and thunder and dance;
Thousands of flags for Great Britain aflame
Answer their sisters in Liberty's name.
Belgium is burning in pride overhead.
Poland is near, and her sunrise is red.
Under and over, and fluttering between,
Italy burgeons in red, white, and green.
See, how they climb like adventurous flowers,
Over the tops of the terrible towers....
_There, in the darkness, the glories are mated.
There, in the darkness, a world is created.
There, in this Pentecost, streaming on high.
There, with a glory of stars in the sky.
There the broad flag of our union and liberty
Rides the proud night-wind and tyrannies die._
poem by Alfred Noyes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
But No More
The time is now or never
The crashing is coming near
The delphi is on the corner
And he whispers in your ear
It used to be men could be solemn even while laughing
And laughter could be heard shore to shore
But no more
Now all you hear is crying
Cause no one's on the phone
Your feet are just now freezing over
You know that you are here all alone
It used to be men could be solemn even while laughing
And laughter could be heard shore to shore
But no more
When I think of friends and places
Things we wanted, hoped we'd be
All that's left is fading traces
Memories of what use to be
Hear their laughter, see their shadows
Feel the darkness, see the light
We had lit all but lost so quickly
We think we won but we lost the fight
But it's all the same to me
I've seen all I want to see
First they laugh at you
Then they cry
Say they'll always be there
Then they die
So alone yet so alive
It used to be men could be solemn even while laughing
And laughter could be heard shore to shore
But no more
song performed by by Zebra
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
We Couldn't Stop Laughing
we hid out in my room
we ate candy
and we couldn’t stop laughing
we joked around
we told our stories
and we couldn’t stop laughing
we looked into the distance
we opened the window
and we couldn’t stop laughing
there was a UPS truck
i stuck my feet out the window
thinking it was a trash truck
and we couldn’t stop laughing
we looked at old yearbooks
we told “do you remember when” stories
and we couldn’t stop laughing
we laughed at each other
we laughed at ourselves
and we couldn’t stop laughing
we laughed at the past
at the present and future
so as friends,
we couldn’t stop laughing
I remember certain people in the audience laughing and I wanted to ask: 'What are you laughing at? This isn't funny.' Now I realize that laughter can come from insecurity. They don't know how they should be feeling.
Old Laughing Lady
Don't call pretty Peggy,
she can't hear you no more
Don't leave no message
'round her back door.
They say the old laughing lady
been here before
She don't keep time,
she don't count score.
You can't have a cupboard
if there ain't no wall.
You got to move there's
no time left to stall.
They say the old laughing lady
dropped by to call
And when she leaves,
she leaves nothing at all.
See the drunkard of the village
falling on the street.
Can't tell his ankles
from the rest of his feet.
He loves his old laughing lady
'cause her taste is so sweet.
But his laughing lady's loving
ain't the kind he can keep.
There's a fever on the freeway,
blacks out the night.
There's a slipping on the stairway,
just don't feel right
And there's a rumbling
in the bedroom
and a flashing of light
There's the old laughing lady,
everything is all right.
song performed by by Neil Young
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Lucio
He took the axe and cut off a bough of a tree,
But men are often forced to seek help from the very ones they despise;
For this world if full of troubles.
Where is the shrine of the harlot who was beside the road of Enaim?
For the women waited and satisfied their men!
But you've now become a laughing stock among others.
You need a young goat to pay for your harlotry,
And like a strong tower in the city of gardens;
But your name is called Lucio and you are still a youth.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Youre Laughing At Me
I love you which is easy to see
But I have to keep guessing how you feel about me
You listen to the words that I speak
But I feel that you listen with your tongue in your cheek
Youre laughing at me
I cant get sentimental
For youre laughing at me I know
I want to be romantic but I havent a chance
Youve got a sense of humor, and humor is death to romance
Youre laughing at me
Why do you think its funny
When I say that I love you so?
Youve got me worried and Im all at sea
For while Im crying for you
Youre laughing at me
song performed by by Ella Fitzgerald
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!