Poems

Kreisler by Carl Sandburg
Sell me a violin, mister, of old mysterious wood.
Sell me a fiddle that has kissed dark nights on the forhead where men kiss sisters they love.
Sell me dried wood that has ached with passion clutching the knees and arms of a storm.
Sell me horsehair and rosin that has sucked at the breasts of the morning sun for milk.
Sell me something crushed in the heartsblood of pain readier than ever for one more song.
by Carl Sandburg
@1918
Cornhuskers
Fiddler Jones
by Edgar Lee Masters
from Spoon River Anthology
The earth keeps some vibration going
Therein your heart, and that is you.
And if people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.
What do you see, a harvest of clover?
Or a meadow to walk through to the river?
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands
For beeves hereafter ready for market;
Or else you hear the rustle of skirts
Like the girls when dancing at Little grove.
To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust
Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;
They looked to me like Red-head Sammy
Stepping it off, to "Toor-a-Loor."
How could I till my forty acres
Not to speak of getting more,
With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos
Stirred in my brain by cows and robins
And the creak of a wind-mill -- only these?
And I never started to plow in my life
That some one did not stop in the road
And take to a dance or picnic.
I ended up with forty acres;
I ended up with a broken fiddle--
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,
And not a signal regret.
Favorite Links
.

Back to Links

.

Back to Home


This page has been visited times.