A word from Carl Sandberg (The People, Yes!)

[Bucky]

Read this poem out loud. Then tell me who will win the election

The People Yes. . .

The people yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
. . . They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
. . . The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
. . . You can't laugh off their capacity to take it.
The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
. . . "I earn my living.
. . . I make enough to get by
. . . and it takes all my time.
. . . If I had more time
. . . I could do more for myself
. . . and maybe for others.
. . . I could read and study
. . . and talk things over
. . . and find out about things.
. . . It takes time.
. . . I wish I had the time."



The people know the salt of the sea
and the strength of the winds
lashing the corners of the earth.
The people take the earth
as a tomb of rest and a cradle of hope.
Who else speaks for the Family of Man?
They are in tune and step
with constellations of universal law.
The people is a polychrome,
a spectrum and a prism
held in a moving monolith,
a console organ of changing themes,
a clavilux of color poems
wherein the sea offers fog
and the fog moves off in rain
and the labrador sunset shortens
to a nocturne of clear stars
serene over the shot spray
of northern lights.

The steel mill sky is alive.
The fire breaks white and zigzag
shot on a gun-metal gloaming.
Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.
Brother may yet line up with brother:

This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
. . . There are men who can't be bought.
. . . The fireborn are at home in fire.
. . . The stars make no noise,
. . . You can't hinder the wind from blowing.
. . . Time is a great teacher.
. . . Who can live without hope?

In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
. . . the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps,
. . . the people march:
. . . "Where to? what next?"

Where to, DU? What do we do next in these next 5 weeks?

[kestrel91316]

1. My new motto.......................

There are men who can't be bought.
. . . The fireborn are at home in fire


BRING IT ON!

[jean]

2. ah, this is comforting - thanks. People seem to be working their hearts

out on the ground, phones and across the internet.

I've been wondering if we have enough funding.

This past week we've gotten many emails and letters asking for money - Bill and Hillary sent separate snail and emails, as well as Howard Dean, the DNC, DCCC, DSCC, local and out of state candidates - also Kerry's legal fund (for after the vote, if necessary).

How are we sitting financially? Is our side limited by our war chest or are we okay?

(The latest RNC trick is giving them access to more money for their ads - by saying "president bush and our leaders" in their ads)

[oasis]

3. Let's hope Carl Sandberg's wisdom will again come alive in school books.

"Leave no child behind" will leave many a good poet behind.