Doors (Monday Poem)

by 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.

From Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg, 

edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin

1995, Sterling Publishing