Valley Song by Carl Sandburg. Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. 1922. The Second Book of Modern Verse

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922.

Valley Song

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967)


YOUR eyes and the valley are memories.
Your eyes fire and the valley a bowl.
It was here a moonrise crept over the timberline.
It was here we turned the coffee cups upside down.
And your eyes and the moon swept the valley.	5

I will see you again to-morrow.
I will see you again in a million years.
I will never know your dark eyes again.
These are three ghosts I keep.
These are three sumach-red dogs I run with.	10

All of it wraps and knots to a riddle:
I have the moon, the timberline, and you.
All three are gone—and I keep all three.