IN ALL PEOPLE I SEE MYSELF,
NONE MORE AND NO ONE
A BARLEY-CORN LESS,
AND THE GOOD OR BAD I SAY OF MYSELF I SAY OF
THEM,
I KNOW I AM SOLID AND SOUND TO ME THE COVERING
OBJECTS
OF THE UNIVERSE PERPETUALLY FLOW,
ALL ARE WRITTEN TO ME ,AND I MUST GET WHAT THE
WRITING MEANS ,
I EXIST AS I AM ,THAT IS ENOUGH, IF NO OTHER IN
THE
WORLD BE AWARE I SIT CONTENT, AND IF EACH AND
ALL BE AWARE I SIT CONTENT. ONE WORLD IS AWARE
AND BY FAR THE LARGEST TO ME, AND THAT IS MYSELF,
AND WETHER I COME TO MY OWN TODAY OR IN TEN
THOUSAND OR TEN TEN MILLION YEARS, I CAN
CHEERFULLY TAKE IT NOW ,OR WITH EQUAL
CHEERFULNESS I CAN WAIT,
I AM THE POET OF THE BODY AND I AM THE POET OF
THE SOUL,
THE PLEASURES OF HEAVEN ARE WITH ME
AND THE PAINS
OF HELL ARE WITH ME
THE FIRST I GRAFT AND INCREASE UPON MYSELF,
THE LATTER I TRANSLATE INTO
A NEW TONGUE.
I AM THE POET OF THE WOMAN THE SAME AS THE MAN,
AND I SAY IT IS AS GREAT TO BE A WOMAN AS TO BE A
MAN, AND I SAY THERE IS NOTHING GREATER THAN THE
MOTHER OF MEN.
I ACCEPT THE REALITY AND DARE NOT QUESTION IT,
MATERIALISM FIRST AND LIST IMBUING.
I WARE MY HAT AS I PLEASE INDOORS OR OUT.
WHY SHOULD I PRAY ?
WHY SHOULD I VENERATE AND BE
CEREMONIOUS?
- Thank You to
Hisham H. for writing and sending this poem -
Song of the Open Road
From this hour
I ordain myself loos’d of
limits and imaginary
lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and
absolute,
Listening to
others, considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving,
contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will,
divesting myself of
the
Holds that would hold me.
I inhale great draughts of space,
The east and the west are
mine, and the north and the
south are mine.
I am larger, better
than I thought,
I did not know I held so much
goodness.
All seems beautiful to me.
I can
repeat over to men and women
You have done such good to me
I would do the same to
you,
I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
I will scatter myself among
men and women as I go,
I will toss a new gladness and
roughness among them.
Whoever denies me it shall not trouble
me,
Whoever accepts me he or she shall be
blessed and shall bless
me.
Now I see the secret of the making of
the best
persons,
It is to grow in the open air and to eat and
sleep
with the earth.
Song of
Myself
I have said that the soul is not more than the
body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the
soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self
is,
And whoever walks
a furlong without sympathy walks to his
Own funeral drest in
his shroud,
And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the
pick of the
earth,
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its
pod
Confounds the
leaning of all times,
And there is no trade or employment but
the young man following it
may become a hero,
And there is no object so soft but it makes
a hub for the wheel’d universe,
And I say to any
man or woman,
Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million
universes.
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my
own face in the
glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street,and every
one is sign’d by God’s
name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that
wheresoe’er I
go,
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.
Animals
I think i could turn and
live with animals ,
they are so placid and
self-contained
I stand and look at them
long and long .
They do not sweat and whine
about their condition ,
They do not lie awake in the
dark and weep for their sins ,
They do not make me sick
discussing their duty to God ,
Not one is dissatisfied ,
not one is demented with
the mania of owning things ,
Not one kneels to another ,
nor to his kind that lived
thousands of years ago ,
Not one is respectable or
industrious over the whole earth .
