8 May 2005

What Made America Great

What made America economically great were the laboring folks who
gave their sweat and their day in and day out toil through the
Bitter Cold days of Winter, the Blistering Heat of the Summer,
And those Frosty clear bright orange pumpkin days of the Autumn. Carl
Sandburg scripted words like Norman Rockwell stroked his characters.

Carl Sandburg (1878­1967). Cornhuskers. 1918.

Illinois Farmer

BURY this old Illinois farmer with respect.

He slept the Illinois nights of his life after days of work in Illinois
cornfields.

Now he goes on a long sleep.

The wind he listened to in the cornsilk and the tassels, the wind that
combed his red beard zero mornings when the snow lay white on the yellow
ears in the bushel basket at the corncrib,

The same wind will now blow over the place here where his hands must dream
of Illinois corn.