Sometimes poetry is witty and clever…I think my grandfather’s favorite poet, Carl Sandburg, hits this brilliantly with his poem Fog. When my grandfather would recite this poem to me I could see exactly what Sandburg meant in the clever way he uses a cat to describe fog. (Don’t ask me about Sandburg’s other poetry though because I have tried to read it but none of it grabbed me like hearing my grandfather recite Fog from memory.)
But recently a poem landed in my email just when the winds were racing around my neighborhood. It is witty, brilliant, it made me chuckle…and it made me look at things from that rascally wind’s perspective!
Bonus moments occur when I keep thinking about the poem and I read it again and again. This poem by Gwendolyn Bennett is just incredible (as is she!) A Black woman – a writer and and educator who was born in Texas in 1902 must have at times felt like the wind was raging around her… and perhaps, just maybe, she felt like the wind around her students!
Wind
The wind was a care-free soul
That broke the chains of earth,
And stood for a moment across the land
With the wild halloo of his mirth
He little cared that he ripped up trees,
That houses fell at his hand,
That his step broke the calm of the breast of the seas,
That his feet stirred clouds of sand.
But when he had had his little joke,
Had shouted and laughed and sung,
When the trees were scarred, their branches broke,
And their foliage aching hung,
He crept to his cave with a healthy tread,
with rain-filled eyes and low-bowed head.
This poem is in the public domain.
Please make sure you stop by and see what Kym, Bonny, and Sarah have to share with you today!
See you back here on Monday with an update on my word! I hope you are having a great week and your weekend will be full of fun things!
Carl Sandburg’s Fog is one of the first poems I remember learning in school, and Gwendolyn Bennett’s Wind cleverly paints the same sort of vivid picture. I especially like the last line; she did have a witty way with words!
This is wonderful! I think from now on I am going to think that the wind is shouting “HALLOO!” when it blows.
I love poems that create such vivid pictures through clever language . . . like this one! Thanks for sharing this wonderful poem.
This is great Kat – love “the wild halloo of his mirth” and also “rain-filled eyes.” Thanks for sharing this new-to-me poet.
The poems I remember from childhood are “Trees” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “The Swing” by Joyce Kilmer. Funny, tho, I had googled them just now and did not realize they are longer than the poems I remember reading. Good poems for Earth Day today! 🙂
I just love the special connection you have to your grandfather through poetry. What a gift. And such fun poems we’re getting from all of you today! I’m enjoying the light-hearted theme. (I’m also a big fan of the wind…which I know many people aren’t. There’s something about it that wipes a slate clean, I guess?)
Isn’t that lovely? Thanks so much for introducing me to this poem and the poet.. and of course, the Sandburg poem is brand new to me as well! This month has been such a journey and I’m thankful for all that you’ve done!
Nice. I like poem
I’ve always thought of wind as a She (along with all things Earth/weather related), but I can appreciate how the poet might see a He instead. Great poem, Kat, and thank you for sharing so many amazing words these past four Thursdays!
“Who has seen the wind?” Certainly, Gwendolyn Bennett! Thanks for sharing this poem – it is a perfect tribute to poetry and the poetess!
Take care and Cheers?
that is Cheers!