I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
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 unhappy over the whole earth.
- Walt Whitman
from "Song of Myself" (1855)
for bête de jour, in remembrance of his recently lost Pablo.
(the misadventures of an expatriate corporate dropout)
Monday, June 9, 2008
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8 comments:
Amen, Walt. And now I want to go get a labrador! :)
These old farts were tough! Thank you, KiMignonne, for the poetry. I was toying with the idea of posting a poem that I wrote ages ago about new shoes--if I could put my hands on it again. This Whitman post is inspired!
Not long ago I was rereading Emerson's Self Reliance paper and was really just blown away. The only thing that got on my nerves was the "he" this and "he" that, so I just changed it to "she" and it was great!
Hope your countdown is going well!
That Walt sounds like a godless commie pinko. I'm calling DHS.
RG-is your middle name McCain?
non, je ne regrette rien
Piaf dedicated the song to the French Foreign Legion
GD- so she did. Quite a few folks have adopted the song as their own, not just French but British, American and Italian as well. it is quite captivating and conveys a real 'in your face essence' of not looking back! welcome by the way, and do come again!
I love Walt!! Was he a PETA member?;-)I so want a dog.
sounds like he would have been a founder, LBR.
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