Category: Mr. Sandburg

1.30.2025 – shadows of the bikes

shadows of the bikes
low blue lustre tardy and
soft inrolling tide

Adapted from Sketch by Carl Sandburg in Chicago Poems as published in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, (Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1950).

The shadows of the ships
Rock on the crest
In the low blue lustre
Of the tardy and the soft inrolling tide.

A long brown bar at the dip of the sky
Puts an arm of sand in the span of salt.

The lucid and endless wrinkles
Draw in, lapse and withdraw.
Wavelets crumble and white spent bubbles
Wash on the floor of the beach.

Rocking on the crest
In the low blue lustre
Are the shadows of the ships.


11.2.2024 – he knew no jury

he knew no jury
darken honest man’s future
with unjust verdict

When the charge of election bribery was brought against an Illinois senator, he replied, “I read the Bible and believe it from cover to cover”

When his accusers specified five hundred dollars of corruption money was paid in a St Louis hotel bathroom, his friends answered, “He is faithful to his wife and always kind to his children”

When he was ousted from the national senate and the doors of his bank were closed by government receivers and a grand jury indicted him, he took the vows of an old established church

When a jury acquitted him of guilt as a bank wrecker, following the testimony of prominent citizens that he was an honest man, he issued a statement to the public for the newspapers, proclaiming he knew beforehand no jury would darken the future of an honest man with an unjust verdict

Implications by as printed in Good morning, America, by Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1928.

Mr. Sandburg titled this poem, Implications.

The online Oxford Dictionary defines implications as “the conclusion that can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated.”

Mr. Sandburg published his poem, Implications, back in 1928.

I am startled not by the implications, the laundry list of wrongs or implied wrongs, that has been going on forever.

But that the Senator in question was backed and continued to be backed, regardless or in spite of evidence to the contrary, by ‘prominent citizens‘ and the Senator’s self assurance in his knowledge beforehand that the jury would be swayed by the testimony of the ‘prominent citizens.’

You could bet cash money this poem had been written yesterday, not 100 years ago.

Who needs social media?

Who needs influencers?

PS: 3 days out of the last 4, I have turned to Mr. Sandburg. If he were alive today, he wouldn’t stop throwing up.

10.31.2024 – heard the sound of waves

heard the sound of waves
someone heard them years ago
as will years from now

Driving to work in the dark again, I park and get out of the car for the short walk to the office.

It is quiet, very quiet, even the birds are silent in the pre-dawn.

There is just of a low rumble sound of the surf to remind me that I am standing about a half mile from the Atlantic Coast.

Doing the math and staying with the median of 2800 miles for the width of the United States, the distance between me and the ocean is 0.0178571429% of the median width of the country.

The tide is coming and will reach a peak around 8 a.m. and cycle through to the day’s 2nd high tide around 8 p.m. tonight.

Happens twice every day.

Has happened twice every day since all this started and will continue twice a day for as long as it us supposed to.

Someone years ago, decades ago, centuries ago, could have stood here and heard the waves and watched the tide come in and go out.

Someone years from now, decades from now, centuries from now, might stand here and hear the waves and watch the tide come in and go out.

As Mr. Lincoln said one the field at Gettysburg, “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here.”

I used to think that was pretty cool.

Back in the day when America dreamed big dreams for all people.

Back in the day when America stood up for dreaming big dreams for all people.

Back in the day when America was recognized for dreaming big dreams for all people.

Today?

Today, I am reminded of something else Mr. Lincoln.

“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.

We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.“

Years from now, about all I count on is that the tide will come in and go out and someone might be here to see it and hear the waves.

Any marks we may have made will all be washed away.

And we just might thank God that it is.

10.30.2024 – money buys everything

money buys everything
‘cept love, personality,
freedom, or peace

Money is power so said one
Money is a cushion so said another
Money is the root of evil so said still another
Money means freedom so runs an old saying
And money is all of these – and more
Money pays for whatever you want — if you have the money
Money buys food, clothes, houses, land, guns, jewels, men, women, time to be lazy and listen to music
Money buys everything except love, personality, freedom, immortality, silence, peace

Carl Sandburg in The People, Yes as published in the Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1957.

Such cheek on my part to adapt Carl Sandburg and change around his words but there it is.

When Mr. Sandburg died in the summer of 1967, the office of President Lyndon Johnson issued this statement in his name.

THE ROAD has come to an end for Carl Sandburg, my friend

Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America. We knew and cherished him as the bard of democracy, the echo of the people, our conscience, and chronicler of truth and beauty and purpose.

Carl Sandburg needs no epitaph. It is written for all time in the fields, the cities, the face and heart of the land he loved and the people he celebrated and inspired.

With the world, we mourn his passing. It is our special pride and fortune as Americans that we will always hear Carl Sandburg’s voice within ourselves. For he gave us the truest and most enduring vision of our own greatness.

At a memorial service for Mr. Sandburg held in front of the Lincoln Memorial later that fall of 1967, President Johnson closed his remarks with:

He knew that always in America “the strong men keep coming on.”

I will miss him; we will all miss him. There will not be one like him again.

But that line of Mr. Johnson’s, “For he gave us the truest and most enduring vision of our own greatness.“

And I read … Money buys everything except love, personality, freedom, immortality, silence, peace.

I will miss him; we will all miss him. There will not be one like him again.

6.3.2024 – societies’ sake

societies’ sake
free from tyrants, exploiters
and legalized frauds

Adapted from:

The free man willing to pay and struggle and die
for the freedom for himself and others
Knowing how far to subject himself to discipline
and obedience for the sake of an ordered society
free from tyrants, exploiters and
legalized frauds

As published in The people, yes by Carl Sandburg, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1936.

Such interesting words get strung together.

Discipline.

Obedience.

Tyrants.

Exploiters

Legalized frauds.

Mr. Sandberg did not have access to social media that’s for sure.