« 4 Baby Pandas Born Same Day in China | Main | My Day in History July 31st »
2 Poems by Carl Sandburg
We are starting off our year by reading poems by 6 different poets. So far we have read the words of William Carlos Williams (none of us liked those that much) and Walt Whitman (I enjoyed and now I want to see Dead Poet's Society again). Today we read a book of Carl Sandburg's poetry. We like these best so far. First I will share a short poem that was one of his most famous. So few words...so full of imagery! The second poem is one anyone who loves or hates arithmetic will enjoy.
I hope these brighten your day!
FOG
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
ARITHMETIC
Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.
Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win if you know how
many you had before you lost or won.
Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven -- or five six bundle of sticks.
Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze fro your head to your hand to
your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.
Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice
and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky -- or the answer is
wrong and you have to start all over and try again and see how it comes out this time.
If you take a number and double it and double it again and then
double it a few more times, the number gets bigger and bigger and goes
higher and higher and only arithmetic can tell you what the number is when
you decide to quit doubling.
Arithmetic is where you have to multiply - and you carry the
multiplication table in your head and hope you won't lose it.
If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad, and you
eat one and a striped zebra with streaks all over him easts the other, how
many animal crackers will you have if somebody offers you
five six seven and you say No no no and you say Nay nay nay and you say
Nix nix nix?
If you ask your other for one fried egg for breakfast and she
gives you two fried eggs and you eat both of them, who is better in
arithmetic, you or your mother?
