Walt Whitman is the Shizzle!

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 your self.

Now come on, just how freakin' awesome is that?! That's from Whitman's 'Song of Myself', the poem from which is taken one of his most famous quotes:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"


It's a beautiful poem in its entirety, but its entirety is large and contains multitudes as well, so I'm not going to print it here, but I will link to it here.

This is one of those pieces of writing that has had a deep and profound effect upon me over the years. Part of the reason is that it's a poem that has deeply affected many of my idols in writing, most notably Henry Miller. It's also a poem that really conveys a lot of my own deepest beliefs, beliefs that are difficult to communicate outside of a poem.

Here is another great passage from the poem:

I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt
stick at night.

I know I am august,
I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
(I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by,
after all.)

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 whether I come to my own to-day or in ten thousand or ten
million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.

My foothold is tenon'd and mortis'd in granite,
I laugh at what you call dissolution,
And I know the amplitude of time.