Horses And Men In Rain
Let us sit by a hissing steam radiator a winter's day, gray wind pattering frozen raindrops on the window,
And let us talk about milk wagon drivers and grocery delivery boys.
Let us keep our feet in wool slippers and mix hot punches—and talk about mail carriers and messenger boys slipping along the icy sidewalks.
Let us write of olden, golden days and hunters of the Holy Grail and men called "knights" riding horses in the rain, in the cold frozen rain for ladies they loved.
A roustabout hunched on a coal wagon goes by, icicles drip on his hat rim, sheets of ice wrapping the hunks of coal, the caravanserai a gray blur in slant of rain.
Let us nudge the steam radiator with our wool slippers and write poems of Launcelot, the hero, and Roland, the hero, and all the olden golden men who rode horses in the rain.
Carl Sandburg
Other author posts
Monotone
The monotone of the rain is beautiful, And the sudden rise and slow relapse Of the long multitudinous rain The sun on the hills is beautiful, Or a captured sunset sea-flung,
Sixteen Months
On the lips of the child Janet float changing dreams It is a thin spiral of blue smoke, A morning campfire at a mountain lake On the lips of the child Janet,
Wars
In the old wars drum of hoofs and the beat of shod feet In the new wars hum of motors and the tread of rubber tires In the wars to come silent wheels and whirr of rods not yet dreamed out in the heads of men In the old wars clutches...
Sea Slant
On up the sea slant, On up the horizon, The ship limps The bone of her nose fog-gray,