Happy Birthday, Carl

Today in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1878 Carl Sandburg was born.

A couple of his shorter works:

Subway

Down between the walls of shadow
Where the iron laws insist,
     The hunger voices mock.

The worn wayfaring men
With the hunched and humble shoulders,
     Throw their laughter into toil.


Kin

Brother, I am fire
Surging under the ocean floor.
I shall never meet you, brother--
Not for years, anyhow;
Maybe thousands of years, brother.
Then I will warm you,
Hold you close, wrap you in circles,
Use you and change you--
Maybe thousands of years, brother.


NOCTURNE IN A DESERTED BRICKYARD

Stuff of the moon
Runs on the lapping sand
Out to the longest shadows.
Under the curving willows,
And round the creep of the wave line,
Fluxions of yellow and dusk on the waters
Make a wide dreaming pansy of an old pond in the night.




(Many more of Sandburg's poems here)