Monday's Poetry: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Yesterday world-class newsman, Dan Rather, posted the following to Twitter:

Reflecting this morning: Isn't the poetry of Hank Williams astounding? 

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
That means he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry 

(Not feeling lonesome personally, just appreciative and contemplative)

Rather's tweet threw me into a state of appreciation and contemplation, and today Alexa is entertaining me with what she refers to as music by "Hank Williams S. R."

I am from the extreme southwest corner of Missouri, McDonald County, which shares borders with Oklahoma and Arkansas.   It is a poor and very rural area that abuts the county in Arkansas that is home to Walmart and the filthy rich Walton family.  McDonald County has two very prominent music connections.  Albert Brumley, a country composer, was living there during the Great Depression when he wrote a couple of gospel mega-hits:  "I'll Fly Away" and "Turn Your Radio On."  The Brumley family remained in the music publishing business for a couple of more generations, and even had their own family show in Branson for awhile.

The other McDonald County connection to the music industry was through Hank Williams, Jr. (a.k.a. "Bosephus") whose first wife was one of the Yeargin girls from over around Jane, Missouri.  Hank Junior and his Yeargin bride were the parents of Sheldon Williams (a.k.a. "Hank 3"), now a young country singer who sounds more like Grandpa Hank than he does Bosephus.  I met Sheldon when he was eleven years old and traveling around the county campaigning with his maternal grandfather who was running for county commissioner.

But today we are concentrating on Hank Senior, a man who Dan Rather rightly calls a poet.  Here is the proof that Mr. Rather knows that of which he tweets:

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

By Hank Williams, Sr.

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill,
He sounds too blue to fly.
That midnight train is whining low,
I'm so lonesome I could cry.

I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by.
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry.

Did you ever see a robin weep,
When leaves begin to die?
That mean he's lost the will to live,
I'm so lonesome I could cry.

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky.
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry.