John Henry Rose Out Of
His Grave
John Henry rose out of his
grave
His eyes were hard and
true.
He went down to the
And
cursed it through and through.
Julie Ann was weeping in
their house
Her tears were tunnel deep.
John walked in through the
door, said,
“Honey don’t you weep!”
John’s baby boy was in his
crib,
His lamb was quiet and
still.
John looked at his
angel-child, said,
“Our lamb possesses my
will.
“I never had anything more
than my hands
And my hammer pounded us
bread,
But a hammer in the hand
ain’t no way to live
When there’s nothing in the
head.
Julie Ann picked up her
sweet child
John spoke his certain
concern.
Saying low, with a
thunderous tone,
“You see that the child
gets learned.
John turned towards the
door
His lamb started to cry,
“
I got to go back to my grave baby child,
The Lords got a tunnel in
the sky.
Lord, Lord—the Lords got a
tunnel in the sky.
©2002 Dan Kantak
Revisited
out of John Henry’s folklore heritage.
ate:
Time:
Remote User:
Comments
Dan, I like "John Henry Rose Out Of
His Grave" and the accompanying picture. I've just published an article
giving an interim report on my research into the historical John Henry, and I
expect to do more work and to publish other articles. My article is in
Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 5, 2002.
Briefly, it outlines evidence placing John Henry and his race with a steam
drill at Oak Mountain Tunnel, Alabama, just south of Leeds (15 miles east of
Birmingham), in 1887, when the Columbus & Western line was being built
between Goodwater and Birmingham. This is contrary to the conventional wisdom
that you cite in your poem, that it was at Big Bend Tunnel,
Sincerely, John Garst garst@chem.uga.edu