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Home  »  The New Poetry  »  Joy

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

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.