1929


Joy

Text by Carl Sandburg

Five Songs Song Collection


"Joy" is the third song of Ruth Crawford Seeger's Five Songs, which sets the poems of Carl Sandburg.

Text

Joy
by Carl Sandburg

Let a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere —
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.

Sheet Music