On the last evening of National Poetry
Month, I want to share with you a song authored by John C. Van Orman called “Vachel
Lindsay Walks Springfield.” It is about Vachel Lindsay (pictured above, my fav photo of Vach by the way) fashioned after Lindsay’s
poem “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” published in the 1919 book, The Congo and Other Poems.
Van Orman describes the
story behind his tune: “I wrote the first two verses of this song in Springfield and Berlin,
Ill., in 1975 at which time I had
started, never completed, and later discarded a third verse. I wrote the third verse as it is here around
1981 in near Larkspur, Colo., after visiting
Guanella Ranch in Empire, Colo.
where Lindsay had written and vacationed with his family.”
Vachel
Lindsay Walks Springfield
Vachel Lindsay walks Springfield at midnight.
He goes to the
Statehouse ’cause he doesn’t have the room,
That Abraham Lincoln has
in the big tomb.
And he stands on the
corner, and beats on his drum,
Summoning Lincoln but if Lincoln
won’t come,
Then he goes to the big
dome on Capitol Street,
When Lincoln is late, that’s where they meet,
The man of the ages
greets the man of the hour,
Where men of mere
moments parley for power.
Lincoln and Lindsay walk
Springfield
together,
Among tourists with
Civil War flags and hats,
And Abe says to Vachel,
“I can’t figure that!
They dwell on my murder
and the glories of war,
And sadly ignore your
own peaceful chore.”
Vachel says, “Abe, you
wrote some poems, too.”
Abe says, “Yes, I wrote
a few.
But nothing like you,
and it’s awkward someway
To be so revered in the land of Lindsay.”
Vachel Lindsay walks Springfield forever!
He and Will Spaulding
stroll by the lakeshore
Among all the people
they did it all for.
John Altgeld still
stands to defend people’s rights,
That men of mere moments
now steal in the night.
Carl Sandburg is singing
an old-timey tune,
While Masters keeps
singing his songs of the Spoon.
Together as always, they
wish us all well,
The carillon laughs like
a tree full of bells.
Send poems or blog post ideas to
astienstra@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2014.
