Poem by Carl Sandburg

At a Window

by Carl Sandburg

Give me hunger,
O, you gods
that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!

But leave me a little love,
A voice to speak to me in the day end,
A hand to touch me in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness.
In the dusk of day-shapes
Blurring the sunset,
One little wandering, western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love.

Youtube Poetry

I've been fascinated by this Youtube channel whose moderators set poetry to jazz soundtracks. It's mesmerizing, I find, and the site contains a small handful of poets (Neruda, Rumi, Sandburg). Juxtaposed against images or old stock film footage, the words and music and images create a hypnotic new work, perhaps even a new genre of literature...