Carl Sandburg Joy Poem

Gerald Ensley: On the road again

The wind comes sweeping down the plains : Folks in the Land of Lincoln support alternative energy sources. The Illinois landscape is dotted with hundreds of electric-power-producing windmills — which are kind of scary looking. They all have three massively long propellers (we saw one being towed by a semi truck) mounted on giant poles. Kudos on going green. But it looks like an invasion of weird insects. Illinois interstate rest stops are cool: Few states have as many attractive interstate rest stops as Illinois. Scenic locations, a variety of architectural styles, pretty landscaping and playgrounds. And close together. Like Florida and Wisconsin, Illinois puts rest stops every 40 miles. Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia put them every 80 miles. You're never a hero in your hometown: We stopped in Galesburg, Ill., to visit the boyhood home of poet/Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg. The signs along Main Street petered out at the Dairy Queen. We asked employees where to find the house. Two of them told us to go down Main Street another 20 blocks and turn right. We did that. No Sandburg house. Asked another guy who gave us good directions to the house: About two blocks from the Dairy Queen. You can't beat the Big Ten for college towns, part II : There is no better college drag than State Street, the 10 blocks-long, pedestrian-only avenue between the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the state Capitol. Boutiques, cafes, bars and street performers provide a constant bustle. This is what FSU and city officials envisioned five years ago for Tallahassee's College Avenue — to no avail so far. Never let your wife have a mobile device : This was the trip Sally discovered her Google Earth app. Boy, was she fascinated. She looked up every address she knew to look at neighborhood aerial photos from satellites that, for my money, all look pretty much alike. "Want to see our hotel parking lot?" she asked.

Poetry Review: “Last Answers” by Carl Sandburg - Poetry Reviews ...

. (Reading a poet’s collected work cover-to-cover remains after all the best –the only– way to ultimately understand a poet.) The process has been… a creative reawakening and a true joy. So often have I found myself saying, “why did it take me so long to return to Sandburg?”

Tomorrow I take my eldest daughter to Iowa to begin her college career. I am feeling the thousand things that all parents feel at such times: nostalgic and sad and proud. Most of all I think I find myself feeling baffled by the way time moves so quickly and steadily towards… dust and mist.

With thoughts of time and my own finitude swirling through my head, “Last Answers” came quickly to my mind this morning.

Chicago Poems

CHICAGO Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler ; Stormy, husky, brawling, ...

Abraham Lincoln, the prairie years and the war years

Presents the life of the Civil War president, detailing his childhood, his education, career as a lawyer and legislator, his marriage, political campaigns, ...

Cosmos

The well-known astronomer presents an illustrated guide to the universe and to Earth's relationship to it, moving from theories of creation to humankind's ...

Rootabaga Stories

Rootabaga Stories, Part One is irrepressible, zany Americana-an anthology to delight admirers of Sandburg's genius.

Joy