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Who Am I?

by Carl Sandburg, 1916

My head knocks against the stars.
 My feet are on the hilltops.
 My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
 Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
 I have been to hell and back many times.
 I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
 I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
 I know the passionate seizure of beauty
 And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”

 My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.

Published in Chicago Poems
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