The South Side of Chicago'' by David Hart
''The South Side of Chicago'' by David Hart
The South Side of Chicago
Whence those childhood years were spent
Skip-walking upon grimacing cracked sidewalks
Hastening through filth floored garbage canned
flanked alleyways to-
The forlorn house-windows weeping chrystalline shards-
cascading glass tears
'Property Condemned' blared in scarlet on the door.
'Someone lives there' it was said,
'the man who gathers things from the garbage cans'
The pebble strewn church yard, where, in prickly winter,
scarved boys coerce the bell to toll with swift flung
snowballs catapaulted to a shivering bell tower.
The South Side of Chicago,
The year of the big church fire
That day it did burn and claw
At the hot black night sky.
People gathered, assembled in solemnity
Aghast, huddled and shoving to see
That hallowed place whose torrents
Of Sunday's serenities and dressups
Now would no longer be.
The South Side of Chicago
There, the swill darkened tavern
That nightly gulped down shadow faced spectres
A lad cries out, 'the bar, someone stabbed in the
head, come and see'.
'Not I', I said, 'not a sight I'd care to see',
as an acidic sadness enveloped me.
The boys came together wearing their
jackets and coats-symbols affixed, emblems
proudly donned-so they knew who they were.
'Wanna join? ' 'No thanks', I said, 'Glad to be
just solitary me'.
I watched them, fighting their rivals
With chains, steel pipes and knives
Fearing their bloody deeds.
Content to be alone
Alone and free
The South Side of Chicago
In cramped classrooms scented in
soap and sawdust
Mostly attentive I would be
Amidst tatterly clothed children
-waiting for recess, lunch or
time to go home.
At recess, the garbage men came
And roused a battalion of rats
That scattered pell-mell
Amidst little girl shrieks
and screams
Little boys chortling
Chased those rats frightened
away
Far away
On the South Side of Chicago
2001DHartUSA
poem by David Hart
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Related quotes
I have a friend who lives in the South Side of Chicago. I helped out at a church charity there where they try to give a bit of cohesion to a desperate area. Everyone was very welcoming.
quote by Sara Paretsky
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In the States, it takes you a lifetime just to get from Chicago's South Side to the West Side.
quote by Luther Allison
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My Kind Of Town
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of people too
People who,smile at you
And each time I leave, Chicago is
Tugging my sleave, Chicago is
One town that won't let you down
It's my kind of town
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of razzmatazz
And it has, all that jazz
And each time I rome, Chicago is
Calling me home, Chicago is
One town that won't let you down
It's my kind of town
Chicago is
The Wrigley Building, Chicago is
The Union stock yard, Chicago is
One town that won't let you down
It's my
My kind of town
song performed by by Barry Manilow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I did a lot of theater in the South side of Chicago.
quote by Kel Mitchell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Chicago
Chicago, chicago, that toddlin town
Chicago, chicago, Ill show you around (youll stay around)
Bet your bottom dollar you lose the blues in
Chicago, chicago, the folks who visit
All wanna settle down. (all wanna settle down in my hometown)
On state street, that great street, I just wanna say,
They do things they dont do on broadway,
Youll have the time, the time of your life
Bring all your friends, all your kids and your wife to
Chicago, chicago my hometown. (hey now baby--)
(oooh baby)
Youll have the time, the time of your life
Bring all your friends, all your kids and your wife to
Chicago, chicago my hometown.
Oh, to chicago, chicago my hometown (yeah)
song performed by by Chicago
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Anchor to Windward
Lakeboat mariners look forward to winter lay-up all summer long. The last voyage north from the steel mills in South Chicago begins before dawn with autumn winds and a cup of hot black coffee from the galley to ward off the chill. Guys congregate on the wind-swept decks, stomping feet and talking of this and that - wives and kids and days spent lounging before the new TV and drinking Budweiser.
'See you next spring, Mick? '
'Not on the Mighty Fitz, you won't! '
His shipmates laugh. They all know Mick's final paycheck is all but spent as soon as he signs off the boat. His wife and three kids live in a four room flat in Canaryville on Chicago's south side. Mick's not ready to swallow the anchor yet. He'll be back with the rest of us eager to sail another season on the Lakes. We keep an anchor to windward.
first day of November
raw winds astern-
lake is dark and deep
life ashore-
rent due
first of the month
morning till night
chores to do-
house in disarray
bar tab
eats up the bonus-
wife in a snit
first day of April
seabag packed-
Mighty Fitz welcomes us
poem by Michael Pruchnicki
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Is There Incest in the Obama Family?
It's Saturday Night Live.....
I mean come on. It’s Chicago’s South side.
Admittedly, there is no evidence of that,
but on the other hand,
there is no convincing evidence
to the contrary and this is just one
of the lingering questions
about Senator Barrack Obama….
poem by Ted Sheridan
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Take Me Back To Chicago
Take me back to chicago
Lay my soul to rest
Where my life was free and easy
Remember me at my best
Take me back to chicago
Where music was all I had
I tried to be good as I could
And sometimes that made me sad
Take me back to chicago, to chicago
Why dont you take me back
Take me back, take me back
To chicago
I still dream of the lake of peacefulness
The warm summer breeze
cause my life was so much simpler then
Street corners and tastee freeze
Take me back to chicago
cause hustlins not my style
L.a. was just a bit too hard
I wish I could be a child
Livin back in chicago, in chicago
Why dont you take me back
Take me back, take me back
To chicago
Take me back to chicago
Lay my soul to rest
Where my life was free and easy
Remember me at my best
Take me back to chicago
cause hustlins not my style
L.a. was just a bit too hard
I wish I could be a child
Livin back in chicago, in chicago
Why dont you take me back
Take me back, take me back
To chicago
Take me back, take me back....
song performed by by Chicago
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Chicago Samba
I live in chicago
A very windy city
But tonight I will dance the Chicago samba
Once again
But when I dance the chicago blues
I sweat like crazy
And I feel like a kid again
But when I hear the chicago samba being played by the local musiciams
In the streets of chicago I get very excited
Because I know that their music cam be heard also from faraway
And bring me back memories of home
poem by Aldo Kraas
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Class Act
When I think of the term class act,
There's no one larger than Mr. T.
From the south side of Chicago,
When the streets were awfully mean.
He works with sick children everywhere.
And he gives to others in need.
Doing it without fanfare,
Each day are many good deeds.
He gives credit to the father,
The One Who sits on the throne.
It's only in movies he's angry,
As he hasn't a selfish bone.
If kids today need a hero,
He will never turn one away.
For he's a friend to all who need one,
He treats everyone this same way.
poem by Robert Edgar Burns
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I Love L. A.
Hate new york city
Its cold and its damp
And all the people dressed like monkeys
Lets leave chicago to the eskimos
That towns a little too rugged
For you and me, you bad girl
Rollin down the imperial highway
With a big nasty redhead at my side
Santa ana wind blowin hot from the north
And we was born to ride
Roll down the window, put down the top
Crank up the beach boys, baby
Dont let the music stop
Were gonna ride it till we just cant ride it no more
From the south bay to the valley
From the west side to the east side
Everybodys very happy
cause the sun is shining all the time
Looks like another perfect day
I love l.a. (we love it)
I love l.a. (we love it)
Look at that mountain
Look at that tree
Look at that bum over there, man
Hes down on his knees
Look at these women
There aint nothin like em nowhere
Century boulevard (we love it)
Victory boulevard (we love it)
Santa monica boulevard (we love it)
Sixth street (we love it, we love it)
I love l.a.
I love l.a.
(we love it)
Etc.
song performed by by Randy Newman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Coal Bins
Chicago, the South Side,
long before Barack Obama
those I'd love see live
anywhere they like
are those so black
they up long planks
in the heat of summer
wheelbarrow coal
so bright it pours
in a silver seiche
down chutes
through windows
of bungalow basements
crashing in coal bins
of new masters
poem by Donal Mahoney
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Welcome home!
As soon as I walked in, Kilmartin called out,
'Welcome home, brave Ulysses, from the strife! '
Now I was glad to be back in the neighborhood,
you can count on that, and the red-faced Kilmartin
with his exuberant Irish greeting, set my heart at ease.
All the lads who had dodged the draft and avoided combat
were sitting on stools at the mahogany bar in Kilmartin's
Kennel Club, waiting patiently for a live one to buy drinks.
Three years in the Far East had changed me, and fighting
in paddy fields had awakened me to what the world had
in store for a dumb mick from the south side of Chicago!
Sink or swim, lad, I thought as I scanned the crowd.
poem by Michael Pruchnicki
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Only In Chicago
I went back
Yes I went back to find out
What we did wrong and
I went back
Yes I went back to see just
How we could feel so good
In Chicago
We seemed to have it all
It was real
It was love
I went back
And I sat by the lake
And looked at the stars
And oh I swear
I remember how much we laughed
And I loved you so
In Chicago
I know we had it all
It was real
It was love
Only in Chicago
Love is in the air
In Chicago
There's a magic there
In Chicago
Our Chicago
Baby, you and I
We tried to take it with us
But you can't go back
'Cause I went back to find out
What we did wrong and
Now I see
That it wasn't just you
It wasn't just me
It was Chicago
But I'm still in love with you
Only you
Only you
But only in Chicago
REPEAT CHORUS
song performed by by Barry Manilow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I'm from Chicago, my family started a chain of movie theaters in Chicago that were around for 70 years and then one of them became the head of Paramount and the other was the head of production at MGM and we all came out of Chicago.
quote by Bob Balaban
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Heading South
Orbison/dees
I want to talk to folks back home again, to walk along a lonely country lane
To spend some time with that woman of mine, heading south, heading south
Things look bright and I feel alright yeah Im heading south
Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light,to join the singing at night
Heading south to cotton rows and honeysuckle bloom
Under the cumberland moon heading south, heading south
Give me room to travel on my way to a place where dreams all fade away
Where the river flows and tobacco grows heading south heading south
Cause the sun is hot and people love a lot yeah Im heading south
Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light, to join the singing at night
Heading south to cotton rows and honeysuckle bloom under the cumberland moon
Heading south, heading south
song performed by by Roy Orbison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hollywood is run by people who sit up in their executive office, who are not connected to Mississippi, Alabama, Chicago, South Carolina. They know nothing about that, they don't go to church, and they make their decisions about what they think is right.
quote by Steve Harvey
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Mamie
Mamie beat her head against the bars of a little Indiana town and dreamed of romance and big things off somewhere the way the railroad trains all ran.
She could see the smoke of the engines get lost down where the streaks of steel flashed in the sun and when the newspapers came in on the morning mail she knew there was a big Chicago far off, where all the trains ran.
She got tired of the barber shop boys and the post office chatter and the church gossip and the old pieces the band played on the Fourth of July and Decoration Day
And sobbed at her fate and beat her head against the bars and was going to kill herself
When the thought came to her that if she was going to die she might as well die struggling for a clutch of romance among the streets of Chicago.
She has a job now at six dollars a week in the basement of the Boston Store
And even now she beats her head against the bars in the same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe there is
romance
and big things
and real dreams
that never go smash.
poem by Carl Sandburg
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South Side Of Dixie
You know Im about to lose my mind
I got a woman down below the mason-dixon line
She deals the cards awful good to me
Shes a blackjack dealer on the delta queen
Chorus:
On the south side of dixie
From savannah georgia down to new orleans
On the south side of dixie
Women there they dont treat you mean
On the south side of dixie
A side of the south you aint never seen
Half a tank north of birmingham
Red eye gravy and country ham
Chattanooga woman sure is sweet
Shes a hillbilly singer from tennessee
Repeat chorus
If you go down south, youre gonna have a ball
Youll go half crazy tryin to love em all
You might get lucky, you cant never tell
With them georgia peaches and them southern belles
Repeat chorus
song performed by by Vince Gill
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Sweat Corn.....the Other Girls...around...
THE KEY WORD IS
'HE IS CRAZY''
NOW IMAGINE...
A GIRL....
EVERY GIRL...YOU CAN POSSIBLY SEE
360 degres ALL AROUND....
SAY IT IN HER OWN WAY.....
AY! !
MAN! ! ...NOW WE ARE TALKING....
HUMANITY
SPEAKS UP...
AT ONCE
IN THE SAME TIME....
like 'WE ARE THE WORLD'....song
WE ARE UNITED....FOR THE WORSE....OF THE WORSE,
WE ARE NEW-YORK, CHICAGO, HUDSON RODGER, LOS-ANGLOS, UNITED....
for
THE WORSE OF THE WORSE....AND FOR THE BEST OF THE CAPITALISM....
CHINESE
MAA-LAY-ZEE- ZI-ZI YEN....
JA I AM JA.....I MEAN JAMEL...MEEL AND MELL....
PAN FOR PENCEL
PENS
PENSEY A MOI...IN FRENCH....FOR NON SPEAKERS...
THINK ABOUT ME...
JAPAN
AFRICA
NORTH POLE
SOUTH CHICAGO....BREZIL
AND CHILI
IS IN TROUBLE
AND NOBY IS HELPING
GREEDI
IE
DIE
YA
SOCK
YUR SO...OK....OOOK
AND EAT YOUR COO R PO...POOW...RE....SHINA CHANG...NEW OWNER....
poem by Atef Ayadi
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