Discovering A Poet

I'd never read very many poems by Carl Sandburg before last Saturday. Oh, the usual ones of course. The one about cat-footed fog and the one about the plough-boy against the sunset. But not very many more.
 But last Saturday, I was at a homeschooler convention and bought some books from a used-book stand. Of the six books I purchased, one was titled "Wind Song".  It's a compilation of Sandburg poems, and I stuck it in my rather large handbag to read later, after I became tired of exploring curriculums and walking through booths. That time soon came, and I sat down in the high-ceilinged, many-beamed cafeteria to rest my aching feet. It was sunny and warm and on the 29th page is a poem that very nearly put me to sleep.  I've nearly memorized it since then, it is so soothing.


SLEEP SONG

Into any little room
may come a tall steel bridge
and a long white fog,
changing lights and mist,
moving as if a great sea
and many mighty waters
had come into that room
easy with bundles of sleep,
bundles of sea-moss sheen,
shapes of sunset cunning,
shifts of moonrise gold--
    slow talk of low fog
    on your forehead,
    hands of cool fog
    on your eyes--
so let a sleep song be spoken--
let spoken fog sheets come
out of a long white harbor--
let a slow mist deliver
long bundles of sleep.
              -Carl Sandburg


Which is what I need now. Goodnight all. May you dream of tall steel bridges, changing lights and mist.