100-Day Project 68-71
If we were such and so, the same as these,
maybe we too would be slingers and sliders,
tumbling half over in the water mirrors,
tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun,
tumbling our purple numbers.
Twirl on, you and your satin blue.
Be water birds, be air birds.
Be these purple tumblers you are.
–Carl Sandburg, “Purple Martins”
I don’t know if Carl Sandburg is still taught in school (is poetry even taught at all anymore?), but he was certainly a well-known literary figure when I was growing up. More than a poet, he collected folktales and ballads, worked as a journalist in Chicago, wrote children’s stories, and won a Pulitzer for his biography of Abraham Lincoln as well as for his poetry. His poems use the experience and rhythms of everyday life and speech to reflect the industrial and urban landscape, but as one website I looked at commented, even urban lives were lived much closer to the natural world in the early 2oth century, and so: purple martins.
Sandburg toured the country singing songs from his “American Songbag” and performing his verse to much acclaim. His friend screenwriter Ben Hecht said of his renditions: “He spoke like a man slowly revealing something.”
You can read the entire poem here: http://10000birds.com/purple-martins-by-carl-sandburg.htm
and more about Carl Sandburg here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/carl-sandburg
You can see all the 100-day project posts here: https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/category/100-day-project/
10 responses to “100-Day Project 68-71”
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- July 1, 2016 -
This group is my favorite of all! (I’m sure you’re shocked.) Oh and the poem!!! Wow wouldn’t it be cool to do a painting to illustrate this poem. Ooh, I could see this poem in so many different mediums, along with your grids. Would be amazing. Well done!! 💜💜💜
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I would love to see you illustrate this poem!
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I would too! I’d have to be much more skilled tho. Even an abstract…..maybe I could attempt a bad one. Would be cool to see one though. I wouldn’t want to not do it Justice. I have lots of purples in the inktense but it’d be a wannabe hack attempt lol.
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I agree with createarteveryday: this is my favorite! Love the lower left one with the textures. And I’ve always loved purple. This is an incredible project, Kerfe.
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I like the brown and purple too. It’s a process of discovery…my favorite part of creation. I don’t know if it’s just the 100 days of the same thing, or the color, or the grids, or all of it together. And not to forget the poems I’m finding either…unexpected.
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Yes, I really love this group, especially that little touch of gold. And now every time I see a martin, I’m going to say “Twirl on, you and your satin blue”! I welcome any opportunity to drop a line of poetry smack dab in the middle of my quotidian life… 🙂
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I love that line too. Wonderful images.
And poetry does add something that nothing else can.
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Nice textures you’re working in.
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Thanks!
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