Poeticous Logo
en
English Español Français Italiano
Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg

Bricklayer Love

I THOUGHT of killing myself because I am only a bricklayer and you a woman who loves the man who runs a drug store.  
 
I don’t care like I used to; I lay bricks straighter than I used to and I sing slower handling the trowel afternoons.  
 
When the sun is in my eyes and the ladders are shaky and the mortar boards go wrong, I think of you.

Cornhuskers. 1918.

#AmericanWriters

Other works by Carl Sandburg...
Broadway

I SHALL never forget you, Broad… Your golden and calling lights. I’ll remember you long, Tall-walled river of rush and play… Hearts that know you hate you
Sea-Wash

The sea-wash never ends. The sea-wash repeats, repeats. Only old songs? Is that all the s… Only the old strong songs? Is that all?
Fog

The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches
 1
Lost

DESOLATE and lone All night long on the lake Where fog trails and mist creeps, The whistle of a boat Calls and cries unendingly,
Savoir Faire

CAST a bronze of my head and legs and put them on the king’s street. Set the cast of me here alongside Carl XII, making two Carls for the Swedish people and the utlanders to look at bet...
Never Born

THE TIME has gone by. The child is dead. The child was never even born. Why go on? Why so much as begin? How can we turn the clock back now
Basket

speak, sir, and be wise. Speak choosing your words, sir, li…
Child

THE young child, Christ, is stra… And asks questions of the old men,… Found under running water for all… And found under shadows thrown on… By tall trees looking downward, ol…
 2
Joy

LET a joy keep you. Reach out your hands And take it when it runs by, As the Apache dancer Clutches his woman.
An Electric Sign Goes Dark

Singing to Paris for bread, singing to Gotham in a fizz at the pop of a bottle’s cork. “Won’t you come and play wiz me” she sang... and “I just can’t make my eyes behave.” “Higgeldy-Pig...
Under a Telephone Pole

I AM a copper wire slung in the a… Slim against the sun I make not e… Night and day I keep singing—humm… It is love and war and money; it i… tears, the work and want,
Branches

The long beautiful night of the wi… The long night hanging down from t… Swinging, swaying, to the wind for… What is the humming, swishing thin… The rain, the wind, the swishing w…
Upstairs

I TOO have a garret of old playt… I have tin soldiers with broken ar… I have a wagon and the wheels gone… I have guns and a drum, a jumping-… And dust is on them and I never l…
Three Spring Notations on Bipeds

THE DOWN drop of the blackbird, The wing catch of arrested flight, The stop midway and then off: off… This is April’s way: a woman: ‘O yes, I’m here again and your h…
Under a Hat Rim

WHILE the hum and the hurry Of passing footfalls Beat in my ear like the restless s… Of a wind-blown sea, A soul came to me



Top