Song of Myself

[Jack Heinlen]

Anyone who hasn't, take a morning or afternoon or evening and read this greatest song of America's greatest poet. Savor it, roll it around your gums. It is facile to dismiss with post-modernism; much more difficut to taste.

"I am a free companion, I bivouac by invading watchfires,
I turn the bridgroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself,
I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.

My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs,
They fetch my man's body up dripping and drown'd.

I understand the large hearts of heroes,
The courage of present times and all times,
How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the
steamship, and Death chasing it up and down the storm,
How he knuckled tight and gave not back an inch, and was faithful of
days and faithful of nights,
And chalk'd in large letters on a board, Be of good cheer, we will
not desert you;
How he follow'd with them and tack'd with them three days and
would not give it up,
How he saved the drifting company at last,
How the lank loose-gown'd women look'd when boated from the
side of their prepared graves,
How the silent old-faced infants and the lifted sick, and the
sharp-lipp'd unshaved men;
All this I swallow, it tastes good, I like it well, it becomes mine,
I am the man, I suffer'd, I was there."

http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1900.html

[ 03-08-2005, 10:48 AM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[Memphis Mike]

gag me with a spoon......

[Jack Heinlen]

Very inciteful Mike.

[Memphis Mike]

tongue.gif

[Jack Heinlen]

It's okay not to like it Mike, though I doubt you've read it. But tell us why. Anyone can stick their tongue out. Not terribly interesting, except at times when nooky is offing. smile.gif

[Memphis Mike]

The poem is fine. It's YOUR writing I dislike.

"Anyone who hasn't, take a morning or afternoon or evening and read this greatest song of America's greatest poet. Savor it, roll it around your gums. It is facile to dismiss with post-modernism; much more difficut to taste."

Savor it? Roll it around your gums!?

gag me with a spoon. tongue.gif

[ 03-08-2005, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Memphis Mike ]

[Jack Heinlen]

Okay, so don't roll it around your gums. Your loss.

[Memphis Mike]

Believe me I won't. You're lowering the image of poetry down to the level of Red Man Chewin Tobacco. :D

[LeeG]

let me take my teeth out,,slufflr gornfera perblts

[Jack Heinlen]

This is gettin' personal. ;) It's my fault for attempting to introduce Whitman, once again. My words are stupid so ignore them. Go read the poetry.

1

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.

[ 03-08-2005, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[Memphis Mike]

My favorite poem is:

There is a race of men that don't fit in
a race that can't stay still
so they break the hearts of kilth and kin
and roam the world at will

I think I first read that on the side of a Yukon Jack whiskey bottle. :D

[ 03-08-2005, 12:44 PM: Message edited by: Memphis Mike ]