saw morning paper
first page back page inside page
saw the world go by
From the poem, Moon Rider by Carl Sandburg published in Poetry – A Magazine of Verse in March of 1922.
Mr. Sandburg wrote these lines 100 years ago.
The man opened the morning paper: saw the first page,
The back page, the inside pages, the editorials;
Saw the world go by, eating, stealing, fighting;
Saw the headlines, date-lines, funnies, ads,
The marching movies of the workmen going to work, the workmen striking,
I start my day with the morning papers on online.
I see the front pages, the back page and the inside pages.
I see the world go by.
It is the first line of the poem that sticks with me.
WHAT have I saved out of a morning?
The earliest of the morning came with moon-mist
And the travel of a moon-spilt purple:
All those pages.
All that reading.
And I can’t remember a dang thing of what I read.