Black-Eyed Susan, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
ONE
Many In One, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
MANY
Navigation, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
NAVIGATION
If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast
stretch, he stretching with them north or south,
Spanning between them east and west, and touch-
ing whatever is between them,
Growths growing from him to offset the growth of
pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chest-
nut, cypress, hickory, lime-tree, cotton-wood,
tulip-tree, cactus, tamarind, orange, magnolia,
persimmon,
Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or
swamp,
He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests
coated with transparent ice, and icicles hang-
ing from the boughs,
Off him pasturage sweet and natural as savannah,
upland, prairie,
Through him flights, songs, screams, answering
those of the wild-pigeon, high-hold, orchard-
oriole, coot, surf-duck, red-shouldered-hawk,
fish-hawk, white-ibis, indian-hen, cat-owl,
water-pheasant, qua-bird, pied-sheldrake,
mocking-bird, buzzard, condor, night-heron,
eagle;
His spirit surrounding his country’s spirit, unclosed
to good and evil,
Surrounding the essences of real things, old times
and present times
-from Leaves of Grass (1856), p185, excerpt from “8 — Poem of Many In One.” by Walt Whitman, from The Walt Whitman Archive
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