One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude. Carl Sandburg More Quotes by Carl Sandburg More Quotes From Carl Sandburg What if someone gave a war & Nobody came? / Life would ring the bells of Ecstasy and Forever be Itself again. Carl Sandburg what-if forever war There is no song to your singing. Carl Sandburg singing song So I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Carl Sandburg strong cities giving What else have I done nearly all my life than go hungry and go on singing? Carl Sandburg singing done goes-on Alike and ever alike, we are on all continents in the need of love, food, clothing, work, speech, worship, sleep, games, dancing, fun. From tropics to arctics humanity live with these needs so alike, so inexorably alike. Carl Sandburg games sleep fun Poetry is a section of river-fog and moving boat-lights, delivered between bridges and whistles, so one says, 'Oh!' and another, 'How?' Carl Sandburg fog light moving People lie because they don't remember clear what they saw. People lie because they can't help making a story better than it was the way it happened. Carl Sandburg lying people way The shovel is the brother to the gun. Carl Sandburg gun military brother Poetry is a series of explanations of life, fading off into horizons too swift for explanations. Carl Sandburg fading explanation horizon Poetry is statement of a series of equations, with numbers and symbols changing like the changes of mirrors, pools, skies, the only never-changing sign being the sign of infinity. Carl Sandburg mirrors sky numbers Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. Carl Sandburg rainbow going-away poetry I have often wondered what it is an old building can do to you when you happen to know a little about things that went on long ago in that building. Carl Sandburg old-buildings long-ago littles Poetry is the capture of a picture, a song, or a flair, in a deliberate prism of words. Carl Sandburg flair capture song I had been keeping an off eye on the advertising field, thinking I might become an idea man and a copywriter. Carl Sandburg eye men thinking I can remember only a few of the strange and curious words now dead but living and spoken by the English people a thousand years ago. Carl Sandburg strange people years I have written some poetry that I don't understand myself. Carl Sandburg written poetry art And how should a beautiful, ignorant stream of water know it heads for an early release — out across the desert, running toward the Gulf, below sea level, to murmur its lullaby, and see the Imperial Valley rise out of burning sand with cotton blossoms, wheat, watermelons, roses, how should it know? Carl Sandburg nature running beautiful The marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading "Keep Off. Carl Sandburg conformity reading men I fell in love, not deep, but I fell several times and then fell out. Carl Sandburg literature Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going? Carl Sandburg self-reflection contemplation introspection