dots-menu
×

Home  »  Chicago Poems  »  127. Waiting

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916.

127. Waiting

TODAY I will let the old boat stand

Where the sweep of the harbor tide comes in

To the pulse of a far, deep-steady sway.

And I will rest and dream and sit on the deck

Watching the world go by

And take my pay for many hard days gone I remember.

I will choose what clouds I like

In the great white fleets that wander the blue

As I lie on my back or loaf at the rail.

And I will listen as the veering winds kiss me and fold me

And put on my brow the touch of the world’s great will.

Daybreak will hear the heart of the boat beat,

Engine throb and piston play

In the quiver and leap at call of life.

To-morrow we move in the gaps and heights

On changing floors of unlevel seas

And no man shall stop us and no man follow

For ours is the quest of an unknown shore

And we are husky and lusty and shouting-gay.