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Today Is A Good Day

7.14.2008


Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? Have you reckoned the earth much?
Have you practiced so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,


You shall possess the good of the earth and sun . . . . there are millions of suns left,
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand . . . . nor look through the

eyes of the dead . . . . nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.


I have heard what the talkers were talking . . . . the talk of the beginning and the end,
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

7 comments:

Melissa Thatcher said...

siiiigh. So refreshing, isn't it? Thank you for the wonderful post - it brightened my day :)

Stephanie said...

what a beautiful photo!

Dee said...

I looooved that so much!!!

I am craving some good folklore and faery stories! What would you recommend?

Dianne said...

So, how does this help you feel when you start wishing that you lived back in "olden days"? I think that it makes the point that one day this time will be the good "olden days." That's how it always is, don't you think? Yesterday has such good things. I believe that we should take the good from the past and put it to work in our day.

julia said...

this reminds me of songs that i wish i wrote...because they are so magical in their eloquent plainness. ultimately, i am happy just to have heard/read it, to be aware of it. thank you mr. whitman, and thank you ann for bringing me to it. lovely.

Kara said...

I love reading your posts. They always take me away to some magical place. Thank you!

Natalie said...

Beautiful!