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Chords in this song9
Song
Played in Open G tuning.
( D G D G B D )
G 0 0 5 4 0 0
Gmaj7 0 0 4 4 0 0
G6 0 0 2 0 0 0
G open 0 0 0 0 0 0
D7 0 2 0 2 1 0
G 5 5 5 5 5 5
C 2 2 2 2 2 2
Intro
G Gmaj7 G6 G D7 G (x2) G
Verse 1
Down by the river junior year walking with my girl
and we came upon a place
There in the tall grass, where a couple had been making love
and left the mark of their embrace
I said to her, "Looks like they had some fun"
She said to me "Let's do the same"
And still I taste her kisses and her freckles in the sun
when I play the poet game.
Verse 2
A young man down in the hill country in the year of '22
went to meet his future bride.
She lived in a rough old shack that poverty blew through
And she invited him inside.
She'd been cooking, ashamed and feeling sad,
she could only offer him bread and her name.
Grandpa said that was the best gift a fella ever had
and he taught me the poet game.
Verse 3
I had a friend who drank too much and played too much guitar
Oh and we sure got along.
Reel-to-reels rolled across the country near and far
with letters, poems, and songs
but these days he don't talk to me and he won't tell me why.
I miss him every time I say his name.
I don't know what he's doing or why our friendship died
while we play the poet game.
Verse 4
The fall rain was pounding down on an old New Hampshire mill
and the river wild and high.
I was talking to her while leaves blew down like a sudden chill.
And there was wildness in her eyes.
We made love like we'd been waiting all our lives for this
Strangers know no shame.
But she had to leave at dawn and with a sticky farewell kiss
left me to play the poet game.
Verse 5
I watched my country turn into a coast-to-coast strip mall
and I cried out in a song.
If we could do all that in 30 years, then please tell me whoa
Why does good change take so long?
Why does the color of your skin or who you choose to love
still lead to such anger and pain?
And why do I think it's any help for me to still dream of
playing the poet game?
Verse 6
Sirens wail above the fields, another soul gone down
another sun about to rise.
I've lost track of my mistakes like birds that fly around
and darken half my skies.
To all of those I've hurt, Oh I pray you will forgive me.
I to you will freely do the same.
So many things I didn't see, with my eyes turned inside,
playing the poet game.
Verse 7
I walk out at night to take a leak underneath the stars.
Oh yeah that's the life for me.
There's Orion and the Pleiades and I guess that must be Mars.
All as clear as we long to be.
I've sung what I was given, some was bad and some was good.
I never did know from where it came
and if I had it all to do again, I am not sure I would
play the poet game.
Outro
G Gmaj7 G6 G D7 G (x3)
Comments
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Play next with the same chords
See all →These need nothing beyond D, G, B, Gmaj7, G6, D7, C, Em, A.
