Joy
(1929)- Music by Ruth Crawford Seeger
- Text by Carl Sandburg
"Joy" is the third song of Ruth Crawford Seeger's Five Songs, which sets the poems of Carl Sandburg.
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.
