,

Poet of the People

for Carl Sandburg

We learned “Fog” in English Class

and how it moved on little cat feet,

a tenderness crept across me then

touching a place I could not name.

When our teacher recited “Chicago”

The Big Shoulders of that city held me

lifting me up above Piedmont, South Carolina

allowing me to see the town with new eyes;

and though we never field tripped to Flat Rock,

that 6o minute minutes north to his home

my compass found it later, The Carl Sandburg Home,

Connemara alive with books, trails, music and yes goats.

I found a haven,

a house perched on poetry’s solid foundation,

a sacred dwelling filled

with the remnants of Carl and Lilian’s’ love.

On a boulder off to myself, I found the man still there

plucking that fierce instrument, his heart,

a tall mountain singing a much needed song.

On this mountaintop the cat leapt from the mist

into my pen inking a blue flame lighting a way

that caught hold.