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The People, Yes
by Carl Sandburg
How and why the title of this 1936 poem became associated with the Isla Vista community building efforts of the early 1970s remains a mystery. But, it seems appropriate.
What follows are excerpts by Carmen Lodise from a poem that runs over 140 pages.
The people is Everyman, everybody.
Everybody is you and me and all others.
What everybody says is what we all say.
And what is it we all say?
The people say and unsay,
put up and tear down
and put together again
a builder, wrecker, and builder again
This is the people.
In the people is the eternal child,
the wandering gypsy, the pioneer homeseeker,
the singer of home sweet home.
From the people the countries get their armies.
The long wars and the short wars will come on the air.
How many got killed and how the war ended
And who got what and the price paid
And how there were tombs for the unknown Soldier,
The boy nobody knows the name of,
The boy whose great fame is that of the masses,
The millions of names too many to write on a tomb,
The heroes, the cannonfodder, the living targets,
The mutilated and sacred dead,
The people, yes.
And after the strife of war begins the strife of peace.
What the people learn out of lifting and hauling
and waiting and losing and laughing
Goes into a scroll, an almanac, a record folding
and unfolding, and the music goes down and around:
The story goes on and on, happens, forgets to happen,
goes out and meets itself coming in,
puts on disguises and drops them.
The people laugh, yes, the people laugh.
They have to in order to live and survive under
lying politicians, lying labor skates,
lying racketeers of business, lying newspapers, lying ads.
The people laugh even at lies that cost them toil and bloody exactions.
For a long time the people may laugh,
until a day comes when the laughter changes key and tone
has something it didn't have.
Then there is a scurrying
and a noise of discussion
and an asking of the question what is it the people want.
Then there is a pretense of giving the people what they want,
with jokers, trick clauses, delays and continuances,
with lawyers and fixers, playboys and ventriloquists,
big time promises.
Time goes by and the gains are small for the years go slow,
yet the gains can be counted
and the laughter of the people foretokening revolt
carries fear to those who wonder how far it will go
and where to block it.
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