Posted by Admin on 6/3/2016
to
Decorative Pillows
The
Carl Sandburg Historic Site in Flat Rock, NC is a local treasure. Its history is steeped with poetry and
surprisingly, goat herding. In its
honor, Michaelian Home has designed several new printed, embellished, Sandburg-inspired, goat pillows, they will surely delight the ‘kid’ in everyone. You can see the new detailed pillows pictured above with actual Sandburg Goats. We also have some existing handmade
needlepoint goat inspired pillows that
are sure to get your goat. You can find
those here: https://www.michaelianhome.com/NCU-798-Billy-Goat-16x20-Needlepoint-Pillow_p_1418.html
Carl
Sandburg was known as the Poet of the People. He was a writer, poet and
songwriter. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry. He also won another Pulitzer for his biography
of Abraham Lincoln, a prolific body of work which is astounding in magnitude. His poetry captured the struggles of the
working class in the early 1900s and thus captured the hearts of the nation. Active politically, he wrote on the issues of
freedom and humanity. He enjoyed "unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day”
and is considered to be a major figure in contemporary literature. "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."
Though he was born and raised in Illinois,
he moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina
in 1945. The name of the 246 acre estate
was Connemara and here he and his wife raised their daughters while he
continued to write. It is said that he
would stay up all night writing in his ‘crazy corner’, then he would eat
breakfast with his family and then retire to bed about 10 o’clock in the
morning. He liked to hike and created
many trails on the estate and would often disappear on a trail to write.
Carl’s wife
Lillian or ‘Paula’ as Carl liked to call her, started raising goats when he was
still a struggling poet in the midwest.
She became interested in genetics and how to increase milk production. By the time they moved to Flat Rock, she was
already famous for her breeding and had established national prominence in the
field. The name Paula Sandburg became a
household name in goat breeding, She
continued to breed goats, mostly
Nubians, Saanens and Toggenburgs in North
Carolina. She
ran a commercial dairy on the farm and at one time had a herd of about 200
goats. Locals say that they used to see Carl driving around town doing errands
with goats in his car! Supposedly this is not surprising to anyone that knew
Carl. One reporter stated that when he visited Carl to interview him in his Michigan home, it was so
cold outside that Carl led fifteen goats into his living room to get warm
during the interview.
Try being a
goat: put on a face of calm contemplations.
Look people in
the eye as though unaware they gaze at you.
Read their
innermost hidden secrets.
Then turn away
toward other horizons chewing your cud.
-
Excerpt from From Daybreak to
Good Night: Poems for Children by Carl
Sandburg
Carl died in 1967
of natural causes and his wife died ten years later. Today the Connemara
estate is a National Historic Site and you can tour the home, hike the trails
that Carl frequented, and visit with goats that still carry Mrs.
Sandburg’s goat's bloodlines. The
current herd is kept to about 15 goats and they don’t milk them but every
spring you can see new kids (goat kids!) toddling about the barn. The site is indeed a national treasure where
history comes to life for ‘kids’ of all ages.
Find out more or plan your visit here: https://www.nps.gov/carl/index.htm