At a Window
‘A poem for such a day as this’
a poem for such a day as this
— is a column where I share my favourite poems and their creators, some of whom might be familiar and some not.
Whatever the case, I hope they elicit a smile, a grin, a tear, a smirk … or, in Kafka’s words — be an axe for the frozen sea within us.
As always — it would be great to hear your thoughts.
A poem for such a day as today is:
At a Window
by Carl Sandburg
Give me hunger,
O you gods that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!
But leave me a little love,
A voice to speak to me in the day end,
A hand to touch me in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness.
In the dusk of day-shapes
Blurring the sunset,
One little wandering, western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love.
Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois in 1878 to Swedish immigrants August and Clara Johnson.
He left school at 13 to support his family through odd jobs.
A chance encounter led him to Lombard College, where Professor Philip Green Wright nurtured his writing talent.
Despite never earning a diploma, Sandburg gained recognition for his free verse poetry, particularly in Chicago literary circles.
His works, including Chicago Poems and Cornhuskers, depicted industrial America and earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
He embarked on ambitious projects, including a six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln, and collected American folklore.
Sandburg’s later years saw further acclaim with Pulitzer Prizes for works like The War Years and Complete Poems.
He died in 1967, leaving behind a rich literary legacy.
In 2018, he was honoured at the American Poets’ Corner in New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Thank you for reading.
