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A Poem On The Underground Wall Lyrics
The last train is nearly due,
The underground is closing soon,
And in the dark deserted station,
Restless in anticipation,
A man waits in the shadows.
His restless eyes leap and scratch,
At all that they can touch or catch,
And hidden deep within his pocket,
Safe within its silent socket,
He holds a colored crayon.
Now from the tunnel's stony womb,
The carriage rides to meet the groom,
And opens wide and welcome doors,
But he hesitates, then withdraws
Deeper in the shadows.
And the train is gone suddenly
On wheels clicking silently
Like a gently tapping litany,
And he holds his crayon rosary
Tighter in his hand.
Now from his pocket quick he flashes,
The crayon on the wall he slashes,
Deep upon the advertising,
A single worded poem comprised
Of four letters.
And his heart is laughing, screaming, pounding
The poem across the tracks rebounding
Shadowed by the exit light
His legs take their ascending flight
To seek the breast of darkness and be suckled by the night.
The underground is closing soon,
And in the dark deserted station,
Restless in anticipation,
A man waits in the shadows.
At all that they can touch or catch,
And hidden deep within his pocket,
Safe within its silent socket,
He holds a colored crayon.
The carriage rides to meet the groom,
And opens wide and welcome doors,
But he hesitates, then withdraws
Deeper in the shadows.
On wheels clicking silently
Like a gently tapping litany,
And he holds his crayon rosary
Tighter in his hand.
The crayon on the wall he slashes,
Deep upon the advertising,
A single worded poem comprised
Of four letters.
The poem across the tracks rebounding
Shadowed by the exit light
His legs take their ascending flight
To seek the breast of darkness and be suckled by the night.
Song Info
Submitted by
kevin On May 21, 2001
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Only Paul Simon could make such a beautiful song about some guy writing the word "fuck" on a subway wall.
Lovely song.
Yes the four-letter word is certainly that lovely "f-word." The idea for this song came from the Wednesday Morning, 3AM album cover. They had taken at least a hundred shots of themselves in front of a wall and finally got the shot they wanted.. They looked a little closer and happened to notice some lucky poet's work had been prominently featured in bold letters. The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls...
I adore the way Simon turns what most people would see as an act of mindless graffiti into a triumph of artistic expression. The vandal is a hero, and vice versa!
I adore the way Simon turns what most people would see as an act of mindless graffiti into a triumph of artistic expression. The vandal is a hero, and vice versa!
Fixable already touched on this, but here is the direct quote (from Live From New York):
“The first album we recorded for Columbia called ‘Wednesday Morning, 3 am’ has a picture on the cover of Paul and myself in the uh subway system in New York here standing at the uh 5th avenue station next to an iron post. If you know the album then you’re familiar with the picture. What you’re not familiar with is the trouble that we went through in order to get that final picture because the original shots that were taken for the ah cover were taken off the uh picture that you see standing against the subway wall at the platform underneath the subway sign and we took about 500 pictures until we were satisfied with the perfect James Dean shot and packed up the cameras and guitars and as we left the station…I took a glance at the subway wall in front of which we had taken all the pictures for the first time that day and noticed that written there-rather legibly-in the baroque style common to New York subway wall writers was the uh the old familiar suggestion. And rather beautifully illustrated as well. Well we had a conference with Columbia records to decide what to do about this problem and of course we immediately told Columbia that this was exactly what we wanted on the cover of the LP. Forget it. I’m um mentioning this because we have taken a song, it’s now two years later...Paul has written a song fairly recently in London dealing with the uh theme of people who write on subway walls but treating the theme in a rather strange and serious way. The song is called ‘A Poem on the Underground Wall’.”
fuck
The four-letter, one word poem is most definitely "Fuck". Paul Simon's inspiration for writing the song came from when they tried to shoot the album over for "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" in the New York Subway and found that much of their photographs couldn't be used because the subway walls were covered in obscenities.
The deeper meaning, I think, would be in relation to what was happening in the country in the 60's with censorship and the anti-society culture. I just love the feeling to the song, personally. I love how he could take something so simple and make such a lovely song :)
I admit I didn't want to read your post at first when I saw you thought it was the F word, and I'm sorry, lol. After reading what you wrote I really enjoyed your words. Thank you for sharing them with me!
I admit I didn't want to read your post at first when I saw you thought it was the F word, and I'm sorry, lol. After reading what you wrote I really enjoyed your words. Thank you for sharing them with me!
Seriously? Where did you people get the nutso idea of a suicide? On the record, you can plainly hear the subject's hollow heeled footsteps as he leaves the station after the train passes.
This is one of my favorite Paul Simon songs. I think it is a beuatifully poetic impression of the myriad of paths towards a personal salvation.
such a nice song, describes life as it was then and has become even more since then...
Anyone know what the single worded poem is?
Love? Hate?
LOVE, always LOVE
LOVE, always LOVE
It was "fuck."
It was "fuck."