Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Poverty Hill

Poverty Hill

Poverty Hill
(Fred Hellerman)

They come in their summery dress and jackets so fine
Rich folks who measure success with a big dollar sign
They gaze with delight at the rocks and the scraggly pine
They come in the spring and they stay til the fall
On Paradise Mountain, away from it all

  Stubble and stone make a hard row to hoe
  What little will grow the drought will kill
  The summer folks call it Paradise Mountain
  We call it Poverty Hill

They say we have beautiful faces as grainy as wood
Yeah, they'd like to live here, of all places,
  if only they could
Well we don't get these wood grainy faces from living too good

Its the rocks and the dust and the sun and the heat
Its too much work and too little to eat
They pack and they say what a pity that they have to go
They say that Old Smoky's so pretty all covered with snow
But how we get thru the winter they never will know

No lard for the pantry, no grist for the mill
And winter's are hard over Poverty Hill

SOF