Carl Sandburg

“One summer afternoon I came home and found all the umbrellas sitting in the kitchen, with straw hats on, telling who they are. ...The umbrella that peels the potatoes with a pencil and makes a pink ink with the peelings stood up and said, "I am the umbrella that peels the potatoes with a pencil and makes a pink ink with the peelings." ...The umbrella that runs to the corner to get corners for the handkerchiefs stood up and said, "I am the umbrella that runs to the corner to get corners for the handkerchiefs."..."I am the umbrella that holds up the sky. I am the umbrella the rain comes through. I am the umbrella that tells the sky when to begin raining and when to stop raining. "I am the umbrella that goes to pieces when the wind blows and then puts itself back together again when the wind goes down. I am the first umbrella, the last umbrella, the one and only umbrella all other umbrellas are named after, first, last and always."When the stranger finished this speech telling who he was and where he came from, all the other umbrellas sat still for a little while, to be respectful. ”

“Show me the telegrams they sent you, one every day for six days while they were walking six hundred miles on their pigeon toes."..1. Feet are as good as wings if you have to. Chickamauga. ...3. In the night sleeping you forget whether you have wings or feet or neither. Chattahoochee. ...6. Pity me. Far is far. Near is near. and there is no place like home when the yellow roses climb up the ladders and sing in the early summer. Pity me. Wednesday Evening In The Twilight And The Gloaming... Well, Wednesday Evening was the only one I noticed making any mention of the yellow roses in her telegram," Hatrack the Horse explained.Then the old man and the girl sat on the cracker box saying nothing, only listening to the yellow roses all on fire with early summer climbing up th ecrooked ladders, up and down and crossways, some of them leaning out and curving and nearly falling.”

“Didn't you tie the mittens on her feet (Wednesday Evening's) extra special nice?Yes--she is an extra special nice pigeon. She cries for pity when she wants pity. And she shuts her eyes when she doesn't want to look at you. And if you look deep in her eyes when her eyes are open you will see lights there exactly like the lights on the pastures and the meadows when the mist is drifting on a Wednesday evening just between the twilight and gloaming.”

“Did you name your pigeons with names?" asked Wiffle (the Chick).These three, the sandy and golden brown, all named themselves by where they came from. This is Chickamauga, here is Chattanooga, and this is Chattahoochee. And the other three all got their names from me when I was feeling high and easy. This is Blue Mist, here is Bubbles, and last of all take a look at Wednesday Evening in the Twilight and the Gloaming."Do you always call her Wednesday Evening in the Twilight and the Gloaming?"Not when I am making coffee from breakfast. If I am making coffee for breakfast then I just call her Wednesday Evening.”

“They are lovely pigeons to look at and their eyes are full of lessons to learn.."They came back yesterday, they came back home," was the answer. "They came back limping on their feet with their toes turned in so far they nearly turned backward.Every day the last six days I get a telegram, six telegrams from six pigeons--and at last they come home.”

“There is only one child in the world and the Child’s name is All Children.”

“The past is a bucket of ashes”

“Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”

“Gather the stars if you wish it soGather the songs and keep them.Gather the faces of women.Gather for keeping years and years.And then...Loosen your hands, let go and say good-bye.Let the stars and songs go.Let the faces and years go.Loosen your hands and say good-bye.”

“Le poete est un animal marin qui vit sur terre et qui voudrait voler.”

“Blowing,BlowingThe gray slabsWill lose youthe winds will flick you awayIn a whiff”

“The moon is friend for the lonesome to talk to.”

“Let your heart lookon white sea sprayand be lonely.Love is a fool star.You and a ring of starsmay mention my nameand then forget me.Love is a fool star.”

“Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.”

“Revolt and terror pay a price.Order and law have a cost.”

“A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one.”

“Somebody's little girl- how easy it is to make a sob story over who she once was and who she now is.”

“Tell him solitude is creative if he is strongand the final decisions are made in silent rooms.Tell him to be different from other peopleif it comes natural and easy being different.Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural.Then he may understand Shakespeareand the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,Michael Faraday and free imaginationsBringing changes into a world resenting change.He will be lonely enoughto have time for the workhe knows as his own.”

“Come clean with a child heartLaugh as peaches in the summer windLet rain on a house roof be a songLet the writing on your facebe a smell of apple orchards on late June.”

“I take you and pile high the memories. Death will break her claws on some I keep.”

“And even now she beats her head against the bars in the same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe there is romance and big things and real dreams that never go smash.”

“Tell no man anything, for no man listensYet hold thy lips ready to speak.”

“God, let me remember all good losers.”

“Give me hunger, pain and want,Shut me out with shame and failureFrom your doors of gold and fame,Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!But leave me a little love.”

“Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.”

“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment.”

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

“Lay me on an anvil, O God.Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.Let me pry loose old walls.Let me lift and loosen old foundations. Lay me on an anvil, O God.Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.”

“A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.”

“I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.”

“I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on the way.”

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.”

“By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars and has a soul.”