Best Songs by Folk Music Poets

Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is possibly one of the most covered songs in contemporary folk music. It even got a brief performance on this season's American Idol. Cohen, in general, is one of contemporary folk music's greatest poets, but this song easily takes the cake as one of his best and most-loved compositions. "I've seen your flag on the marble arch / Love is not a victory march / It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah."

Bob Dylan has written so many songs, it's nearly impossible to count the amount of tunes that could (and maybe should) be on this list. But, if only one can make it, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a pretty fair contender. The sheer number of words and images in this song that call out poverty, disease, racism, war, and other issues, is just impressive. "I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken / I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children / And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."

Gillian Welch is one of the most respected songwriters at work these days, and all of her songs are poetic and beautiful. "I Dream a Highway" from Time (The Revelator) is an exquisite example of her gift as a songwriter and her ability to just nail love and longing. She sings: "I'm an indisguisable shade of twilight /Any second now I'm gonna turn myself on / In the blue display of the cool cathode ray / I dream a highway back to you."

The late Dave Carter was easily one of contemporary folk music's greatest poets. But, perhaps his most poetic moment was in the composition of this tune, which became somewhat prophetic since he died soon after the release of the album by the same name. "Sigh, mournful sister, whisper and turn / I will rattle like dry leaves when I go / Stand in the mist where my fire used to burn / I will camp on the night breeze when I go."

Greg Brown's songbook is full of hidden gems, and this song is a great example of Greg's exceptional poetics. Singing about loneliness, fear, shame, and the questioning of faith, he says, "If I open the door, you will know I'm poor / and my secrets are all that I own / Oh Lord, I have made you a place in my heart / and I hope that you leave it alone."

Townes Van Zandt's songs are some of the most beautiful sad songs ever written, and "Be Here to Love Me" is no exception. It's hard to choose a "best" from his canon, but this was the first one that came to mind. With total longing and sadness, he sings: "Children are dancin', the gamblers are chancin' their all / The window's accusing the door of abusing the wall / But who cares what the night watchmen say...be here to love me today."

This may not be the song that most people think of when they think about Ani DiFranco, but it is possibly one of her most remarkable moments of poetry. With the calibur of rhyme and narration only she seems capable of, DiFranco likens choosing between two lovers to a mother in a burning house trying to choose between which child to save first, singing: "She's choking on the smoke of unthinkable choices, she is haunted by the voices of so many desires / she's bent over from the business of begging forgiveness / while frantically running around putting out fires."

Cat Stevens is a rather gifted poet and songwriter, and this is one of his most poetic songs about being followed by shadow from the moon. The lyrics talk about how, no matter what happens, everything will be okay. He sings, "And if I ever lose my legs, I wont moan, and I wont beg / Yes if I ever lose my legs, I wont have to walk no more / And if I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth, north and south / Yes if I ever lose my mouth, I wont have to talk."

Patty Griffin may be one of the greatest poets in contemporary folk music. Every single song she writes is a little poem. "Kite Song" is a tune about wishes and dreams, despite how hard things can be sometimes. She sings, "Little sister just remember as you wander through the blue / The little kite that you sent flying on a sunny afternoon / Made of something light as nothing made of joy that matters too / How the little dreams we dream are all we can really do."

This song from Dan Bern's first full-length album seems like an oft-forgotten gem, but it was an early indication of just how great a songwriter and poet Dan Bern really is. The song captures all the wasted talent and disappointment of a generation, singing: "The smartest of them all moonlighting as a word processor / And the strongest of them all checking IDs outside a saloon / And the prettiest of all taking off her clothes in front of men..."