What Lincoln Might Say about the 2020 Election

                                                                  photo by Jason / flikr 

Watching TV this morning I suddenly remembered the title of Carl Sandburg' s poem, The People Yes. This part of his book-length poem was published in 1936 as people were struggling with the hard times the Depression brought. I share this part of the poem with you   because it captures some of my multicolored feelings on this historic day.

"Lincoln?

He was a mystery in smoke and flags 

Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags, 

Yes to the paradoxes of democracy,

Yes to the hopes of government

Of the people by the people for the people, 

No to debauchery of the public mind, 

No to personal malice nursed and fed,

Yes to the Constitution when a help,

No to the Constitution when a hindrance

Yes to a man as a struggler amid illusions,

Each man fated to answer for himself;

Which of the faiths and illusions of mankind

Must I choose for my own sustaining light

To bring me beyond the present wilderness?

      Lincoln? Was he a poet?

      And did he write verses?

"I have not willingly planted a thorn

       in any man's bosom

I shall do nothing through malice: what

        I deal with is too vast for malice."

Death was in the air. 

So was birth."

                                                          photo by Marsha Leigh / flikr

                                                           --Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com