A powerful, descriptive talent

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

Sandburg said he never set out to win any prizes for his writing and, in fact, wanted to “write my own way,” even though that often was at odds with what his contemporaries were doing.  All that did, of course, was win him most of the major prizes, including three Pulitzers – the only poet to ever win that many.     He actually won two for his poetry - for Corn Huskers and Complete Poems - and then another for the second volume of his two-volume masterpiece Abraham Lincoln, still considered one of the definitive biographical works on our 16^th President. 

 

                                 Like so many great writers of the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, Sandburg began writing as a journalist (for the Chicago Daily News).  And, while he is most known for his poetry - particularly about his adopted city  - his historical works, biographies, novels, children's literature, and film reviews also were among the best pieces of his day.

He truly enjoyed unrivaled appeal as a poet, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life.  At his death in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson observed, “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America.”   Arguably, Sandburg’s best-known poem may be "Chicago – City of the Big Shoulders"– but my favorite is the short and whimsical Fog. 
 

Fog

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.