Poems for Spring: 'Three Spring Notations on Bipeds' by Carl Sandburg (1920)

Poetry

Three Spring Notations on Bipeds

by Carl Sandburg (1920)

1 The down drop of the blackbird, The wing catch of arrested flight, The stop midway and then off: off for triangles, circles, loops of new hieroglyphs— This is April’s way: a woman: “O yes, I’m here again and your heart knows I was coming.” 2 White pigeons rush at the sun, A marathon of wing feats is on: “Who most loves danger? Who most loves wings? Who somersaults for God’s sake in the name of wing power in the sun and blue on an April Thursday.” So ten winged heads, ten winged feet, race their white forms over Elmhurst. They go fast: once the ten together were a feather of foam bubble, a chrysanthemum whirl speaking to silver and azure. 3 The child is on my shoulders. In the prairie moonlight the child’s legs hang over my shoulders. She sits on my neck and I hear her calling me a good horse. She slides down—and into the moon silver of a prairie stream She throws a stone and laughs at the clug-clug.


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