Back to Index

Half Moon in a High Wind

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

Money is nothing now, even if I had it,
 O mooney moon, yellow half moon,
 Up over the green pines and gray elms,
 Up in the new blue.

   Streel, streel,
 White lacey mist sheets of cloud,
 Streel in the blowing of the wind,
 Streel over the blue-and-moon sky,
 Yellow gold half moon. It is light
 On the snow; it is dark on the snow,
 Streel, O lacey thin sheets, up in the new blue.

 Come down, stay there, move on.
 I want you, I don’t, keep all.
 There is no song to your singing.
 I am hit deep, you drive far,
 O mooney yellow half moon,
 Steady, steady; or will you tip over?
 Or will the wind and the streeling
 Thin sheets only pass and move on
 And leave you alone and lovely?
 I want you, I don’t, come down,
   Stay there, move on.
 Money is nothing now, even if I had it.

Published in Smoke and Steel
Tags:

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.