Category: Mr. Sandburg

5.11.2026 – the greatest city,

the greatest city,
the greatest nation, nothing …
like us ever was

It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,”
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind, #3 by Carl Sandburg as published in Smoke and Steel in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1970).

We don’t carry One Dollar bills any more but I had Professor back in college where I studied United States History who gave a one hour lecture based on the back of the One Dollar Bill.

He hit on the In God We Trust and pointed out the Mason’s All Seeing Eye at the top of the unfinished pyramid.

Then he hit on Novus ordo seclorum and that meant, The New Order of the Ages.

And finished with Annuit Coeptis or God has approved our undertaking.

Well sir, it has happened before.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”

And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.

And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.

I will also mention the Great Seal of the United States.

Notice the Eagle looks towards the olive branches.

This was a change made by President Truman after WW2.

Had anyone in the current administration had any education in the Presidency, they might have caught and changed that too.

But I ain’t going tell them.

5.3.2026 – the running water

the running water
home of living fish and
silver of the sun

The mountains stand up around the main street m Harper’s Ferry
Shadows stand around the town, and mist creeps up the flanks of tall
rocks

A terrible push of waters sometime made a cloven way for their flood
here

On the main street the houses huddle, the walls crouch for cover
And yet— up at Hilltop House, or up on Jefferson’s Rock, there are
lookouts.

There are the long curves of the meeting of the Potomac and the
Shenandoah,

There is the running water home of living fish and silver of the sun
The lazy flat rocks spread out browns for green and blue silver to run
over

Mascots of silver circles move around Harper’s Ferry
No wonder John Brown came here to fight and be hanged
No wonder Thomas Jefferson came here to sit with his proud red head
writing notes on the great State of Virginia
Borders hem the town, borders of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland,
Be absent minded a minute or two and you guess at what state you
are in

Harper’s Ferry is a meeting place of winds and waters, rocks and ranges

Landscapes Including States of the Union by Carl Sandburg as publishing Good Morning America in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1950).

Yes I went for the one line, There is the running water home of living fish and silver of the sun, to go with my photograph of Horse Creek on Hilton Head Island.

It is not Harper’s Ferry.

This is Harper’s Ferry with me on Jefferson’s Rock and my brother Eddie standing in front of me.

As Mr. Sandburg writes:

or up on Jefferson’s Rock, there are
lookouts.

No wonder Thomas Jefferson came here to sit with his proud red head
writing notes on the great State of Virginia.

I have to point out that visitiors are no longer allowed to sit of stand on Jefferson’s rock.

Today there are guard rails to protect the rock.

In Jefferson’s day there were no were upright stone post to keep the rock in place.

BUT I DIGRESS.

My photo is of the sun over Horse Creek in the center of Hilton Head Island.

Miles from anywhere and miles from anywhere.

Be absent minded a minute or two and you guess at what state you
are in.

3.20.2026 – boxes on beach are

boxes on beach are
empty shake ’em nails loosen
they have been somewhere

Adapted from the poem Sand Scribblings by Carl Sandburg in Smoke and Steel as published in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, by Carl Sandburg, Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1950.

The wind stops, the wind begins.
The wind says stop, begin.

A sea shovel scrapes the sand floor.
The shovel changes, the floor changes.

The sandpipers, maybe they know.
Maybe a three-pointed foot can tell.
Maybe the fog moon they fly to, guesses.

The sandpipers cheep ‘Here’ and get away.
Five of them fly and keep together flying.

Night hair of some sea woman
Curls on the sand when the sea leaves
The salt tide without a good-by.

Boxes on the beach are empty.
Shake ’em and the nails loosen.
They have been somewhere.

This is special to me today as I know the boxes on the beach are empty.

They are empty because we emptied them.

We know they have been somewhere, because we filled them and moved them to the island … were we now live.

Got to go ride my bike to the NEARBY beach and scribble in the sand.

3.9.2026 – leaning against each

leaning against each
other like drunken brothers
at a funeral

Adapted from the poem, Even Numbers by Carl Sandburg as published in The People, Yes in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg by Carl Sandburg (Harcourt, Brace and Company: New York, 1950).

1

A HOUSE like a man all lean and coughing,
a man with his two hands in the air at a cry,

“Hands up“

A house like a woman shrunken and stoop-shouldered,
shrunken and done with dishes and dances

These two houses I saw going uphill in Cincinnati

2

Two houses leaning against each other like drunken
brothers at a funeral,

Two houses facing each other like two blind wrestlers
hunting a hold on each other.

These four scrawny houses I saw on a dead level
cinder patch in Scranton, Pennsylvania

3

And by the light of a white moon m Waukesha, Wisconsin,
I saw a lattice work in lilac time white-mist lavender
a sweet moonlit lavender

Sorry but I just couldn’t resist.

Hey Little Brother!

Still in the drivers seat!

For those who know, they know,

For those who don’t know, that’s my little brother Pete watching me handle the reigns sitting in the drivers seat ( at the Dutch Village in Holland, Michigan).

I don’t have glasses yet and it looks like I still have my front teeth so this could have been the summer of 1968.

1969 was a rough year on my face.

I got glasses.

On my 9th birthday, I got hit in the face with a surf board that gashed my cheek open.

On Thanksgiving Day, running from my brother Timmy, I slipped and fell on the basement floor and chipped my left front tooth in half.

Still wear glasses.

Still have the scar.

One of grand daughters just lost her front teeth and asked her Mom if she could get a gold tooth like Pappa.

BTW, I should mention that this college basketball season, Michigan went undefeated on the road in the Big 10, something that hasn’t happened since 1976.

They tied the record of most regular season wins by a Big 10 team.

And in the process, the swept the home and away series with that team in East Lansing.

Home of the my little brother.