Doors

By Carl Sandburg 1878–1967 Carl Sandburg

An open door says, “Come in.”

A shut door says, “Who are you?”

Shadows and ghosts go through shut doors.

If a door is shut and you want it shut,

why open it?

If a door is open and you want it open,

why shut it?

Doors forget but only doors know what it is

doors forget.

Carl Sandburg, “Doors” from The Sandburg Range. Copyright © 1957 by Carl Sandburg and renewed in 1985 by Margaret Sandburg, Janet Sandburg, and Helga Sandburg Crile. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This material may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Source: Wind Song (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1947)

Biography

"Trying to write briefly about Carl Sandburg," said a friend of the poet, "is like trying to picture the Grand Canyon in one black and white snapshot." His range of interests was enumerated by his close friend, Harry Golden, who, in his study of the poet, called Sandburg "the one American writer who distinguished himself in five fields—poetry, history, biography, fiction, and music."

Sandburg composed his poetry primarily in . . .

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