Whitman was the first poet I really loved. After I discovered him in college, I carried around a thick volume of Leaves of Grass in my backpack for years. I read him in subway cars, on beaches, in dark rooms with blue party lights. I especially loved the opening sections of “Song of Myself.” They were perfect. Here’s one of my favorite passages: Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it, The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it. The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me. What do I like in Whitman? The sense of openness, possibility, inclusion, confidence, equality, love, and hope. His world is never damned.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 00:08:43 +0000
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