Woody's Ghost

I’m thinking on old Woody now
He passed this way one time
The B.P.A. paid sixes
For him to write some lines
About the ways of waterwheels and wine

He left the land of golden
For the state of blue and green
Just loaded up the Pontiac
And hit the trail unseen
To Oregon and saying what you mean

A folk singer who did the best he could
To change the world with words and steel and wood
A simple line, a simple rhyme
To take us to another time…

The spring of ’41 found him a writing hard and fast
Trying to guess the future
By leaning on the past
The muse was there, the question would it last

Almost, thirty songs in thirty days
Some words to ponder on
Songs of work and water
And a time long gone
When power helped turn darkness into dawn

A folk singer who did the best he could
To change the world with words and steel and wood
A simple line, a simple rhyme
To take us to another time…

A little bit of lonely and some hunger and some thirst
It might not be the best, perhaps
But it’s damn sure not the worst
Let’s flip this switch and move the last to first

I thought I saw his ghost on 92^nd Avenue
Crossing against the light
Then fading out of view
This bearded ghost was only passing through
Still searching for that pot of rainbow stew
The man who said this land’s for me and you