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

5.29.2024 – sailing free sky blue

sailing free sky blue
sailing changing and sailing
let me have spring dreams

Spring Clouds – May 2024 – Broad River at Robert Smalls Parkway

Drift, and drift on, white ships.
Sailing the free sky blue, sailing and changing and sailing,
Oh, I remember in the blood of my dreams how they sang before me.
Oh, they were men and women who got money for their work, money or love or dreams.
Sail on, white ships.
Let me have spring dreams.

From Carlovingian Dreams as published in Smoke and Steel by Carl Sandburg, New York, Harcourt Brace, 1920

3.18.2024 – fresh and fair come back

fresh and fair come back
hang over pasture and road
lowland grasses rise

From the poem, Uplands as published in Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg (Henry Holt and Company, 1916).

Wonder as of old things
Fresh and fair come back
Hangs over pasture and road.
Lush in the lowland grasses rise
And upland beckons to upland.
The great strong hills are humble.

According to National Wildlife Federation Website, The Southern Live Oak “…Unlike most oak trees, which are deciduous, southern live oaks are nearly evergreen. They replace their leaves over a short period of several weeks in the spring.

Southern live oaks are fast-growing trees, but their growth rate slows with age. They may reach close to their maximum trunk diameter within 70 years. The oldest live oaks in the country are estimated to be between several hundred to more than a thousand years old.”

Wonder of old things.

Fresh and fair come back.

You can walk under them in the Spring time and your feet rustle in the fresh fallen leaves of the same Spring time along the Spanish Moss Trail in Beaufort County, South Carolina.

The trail is a rails-to-trails project that follows a track of a small South Carolina Railroad line through the salt marshes and live oaks of the South Carolina Low Country.

What was the name of that railroad you ask?

What else but the Magnolia Line.

3.1.2024 – sea is never still

sea is never still
pounds on the shore restless as
a young heart, hunting

THE sea is never still.
It pounds on the shore
Restless as a young heart,
Hunting.

The sea speaks
And only the stormy hearts
Know what it says:
It is the face
of a rough mother speaking.

The sea is young.
One storm cleans all the hoar
And loosens the age of it.
I hear it laughing, reckless.

They love the sea,
Men who ride on it
And know they will die
Under the salt of it

Let only the young come,
Says the sea.

Let them kiss my face
And hear me.
I am the last word
And I tell
Where storms and stars come from.

From The Young Sea in Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg (Henry Holt and Company, 1916).

2.13.2024 – a captured sunrise

a captured sunrise
fire and gold of sky and sea
bannered with fire, gold

Based on the poem, Monotone by Carl Sandburg as printed in Chicago Poems (H. Holt and Company, New York, 1916), the section titled, Fog and Fires.

The poem reads:

The monotone of the rain is beautiful,
And the sudden rise and slow relapse
Of the long multitudinous rain.

The sun on the hills is beautiful,
Or a captured sunset sea-flung,
Bannered with fire and gold.

A face I know is beautiful —
With fire and gold of sky and sea,
And the peace of long warm rain.

It rained all yesterday.

It rained all last night.

A long multitudinous rain.

This morning as I drove over the Cross Island Parkway bridge, the sun broke through, and bannered the sky with fire and gold.

Sometimes I feel a little goofy, sheepish maybe, that so many times I have used photos of the sunrise from this bridge.

But all times, I know I would feel worse if I crossed that bridge and didn’t notice anything special.

As for turning to the word painting of Mr. Sandburg for content, I make no apology.