Hank Williams Sr. should be regarded as one of the great American poets

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Consider these lyrics:

Have you ever heard a robin weep? As leaves begin to die…

or

The silence of a falling star, lights up a purple sky…

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Paul Gilley (October 1, 1929 – June 16, 1957) was an American country music lyricist and promoter from Kentucky. In his lifetime, he was little known as a songwriter, but decades after his death by drowning at age 27, he was identified more widely as likely having written the lyrics to a dozen famous songs, including two that were hits for Hank Williams: "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". He may have also written "I Overlooked an Orchid", which was a number-one country hit in 1974 for Mickey Gilley (no relation). Other songs that have been attributed to Gilley include "If Teardrops Were Pennies", "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", and "Crazy Arms"

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Gilley wrote song lyrics in high school. In his first year of college, he wrote an essay titled "Getting a Song Published", warning against the "song shark", who asks for payment from the songwriter. In the Morehead Inkpot, Gilley was credited as the writer of "Cold, Cold Heart", jokingly said to have been inspired by a basketball referee. Decades later, music journalist Chet Flippo wrote in 1981 that Gilley traveled to a Nashville bus station, where he met Hank Williams to sell the songs "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". Gilley sold the songs outright because the one-time payment to him was higher if he allowed others to take credit. Historian W. Lynn Nickell wrote in 2012 that the bus-station encounter was in mid-1950, with Williams curious to meet this young songwriter who had already supplied him with a couple of songs, including "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", and that Williams bought "Cold, Cold Heart" at the meeting. Gilley once wrote that it was "not too bad" being uncredited, since "you get paid for the lyrics—sometimes well paid." Gilley was paid in the range of $50 to $400 for each song, equivalent in today's dollars to $650–5,230.

Gilley wrote more lyrics than music, so to create songs, he occasionally collaborated with composers. His collaboration with Carter Gibbs produced the song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". Another of his composer partners was Frank Kratz, who helped with "Satan Can't Hold Me", recorded by Jim Reeves. Kratz recorded "Go Cat Go", a rockabilly song, and he co-wrote "Ooh So Nice", recorded by R&B singer Johnny Adams.

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"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was co-written with Carter Gibbs, and recorded in August 1949 by Hank Williams, who released it as a B-side in November. The Foggy River Boys covered the song the next year, with later notable versions from Marty Robbins (1957), Andy Williams (1959), Johnny Cash (1960), and Wanda Jackson (1965), among many others.

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"Cold, Cold Heart" was recorded by Hank Williams in December 1950, then released as a B-side in February 1951. Other 1951 covers were made by Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, and Petula Clark. Many others subsequently covered the song. Gilley claimed credit for the song in mid-1951

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Kafka

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Some high society lady said, "Is your horse outside?" " No ma'am he's between my legs, but you're too fat to ride."

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