Pete Seeger

[PrinceMyshkin]

I carry my life lightly
within this hard-knit body,
a body that has served me well,
lo, these many years.

My songs have been my body.
I can hardly tell the two apart.

But though I sang against
injustice, the rape
by the wealthy of the poor,
my secret, underlying message

was joy! Joy!

[kiz_paws]

Anyone with the inscription "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender" inscribed on his banjo surely deserves such a worthy poem. ;)

I loved your first verse, Jer, it was sweet. The second verse personifies the body and the song -- awesome, very crafty of you.

And yes, though Pete was never afraid to let us know his thoughts, it was always about love and joy.

Thank you for this lovely poem. :)

[blp]

Hooray for Pete. This is sweet. Personally, I would delete 'secret, underlying', both for sense and the sake of the poetry.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hooray for Pete. This is sweet. Personally, I would delete 'secret, underlying', both for sense and the sake of the poetry.

I will thnk about that, blp. I think what unconsciously got in there was my experience over the years teaching when I came to feel that whatever else I might be conveying to my students, there was an ulterior agenda of love. It was sometimes impossible to be in the presence of their youth and talent without feeling so much love for them, which I wanted them to feel for each other.

[blp]

I see you've changed it to first person. I preferred it in the third. It might just be presuming a little too much to speak for the guy.

I think, just by saying the message is joy, you sufficiently acknowledge the fact that that's not completely obvious (hence, needed to be stated), so the slightly awkward, 'secret, underlying' is unnecessary. You might just as well (or rather ill) say, 'for those who need this pointing out').

[PrinceMyshkin]

I see you've changed it to first person. I preferred it in the third. It might just be presuming a little too much to speak for the guy.

I think, just by saying the message is joy, you sufficiently acknowledge the fact that that's not completely obvious (hence, needed to be stated), so the slightly awkward, 'secret, underlying' is unnecessary. You might just as well (or rather ill) say, 'for those who need this pointing out').

Not ready yet to delete the words you find superfluous: I felt I needed them to stress how the message might be hidden from those who were most focussed on the political content.

But it fascinates me that you thought the poem was originally in third person. It never was! You must have unconsciously read it that way as being preferable to you!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Watch the faces
of the kids in classrooms
as Pete encourages them to sing
This land is your land..
Their eyes afire with joy
This land is my land

Watch their faces
and I defy you
not to hope

From California to the New York Islands
and I defy you
to be cynical

I defy you
not to do what we all must do
to keep the children
and hope alive.

[kiz_paws]

Oh, I love that message. And I could picture a classroom of children singing at the top of their lungs! :)