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Walt Whitman’s Salute to the World

 

I chose you Walt because

You are the poet of the future

 

In this garden the world is

New and ascending.

O to make the most jubilant song!

Full of music, full of

Manhood, womanhood, infancy.

 

O to realize space!

The plenteousness of all

That there are no bounds

To emerge and be of the sky,

 

Of the sun and moon and

Flying clouds, as one with them.

 

The Sun, and stars that float

In the open air

I do not know what it is

Except that it is grand

And that it is happiness.

 

Whoever you are, the divine ship

Sails the divine sea for you.

Are he or she for whom the

Sun and moon hang in the sky

For none more than you are the

Present and the past

For none more than you is immortality.

 

I think I could stop here

Myself and do miracles

 

Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know nothing else but miracles.

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan    

Or stand  under trees in the woods

 

To me every hour of light and dark is a miracle

The sea, the fishes that swim, the

Motion of the waves, to me,

I know of nothing else but miracles.

 

Flood-tide below me!

I see you face to face

Just as you are refreshed.

By the gladness of the river

And the bright flow,

I was refreshed.

 

Flow on River, frolic on!

 

O take my hand Walt Whitman

Such gliding wonders, such

Sights and Sounds.

What do you see Walt Whitman?

Who are they you salute, and

They one after another who                                                                         

            Salute you?

 

You whoever you are!

And you of centuries hence

When you listen to me.                                                                                            

Health to you, Good will to

You all, from me and

America sent!

 

Each of us inevitable—

Each of us limitless—

Each of us with his

Or her right upon the Earth

Each of us here as divinely

As any is here.

 

My spirit has pass’d in

Compassion and determination

Around the Earth.

I have look’d for

Equals and lovers and have

Found them ready for me

In all lands

I think some divine rapport

Has equalized me with them.

                                   

I have taken my stand on

The high embedded roads

And run through all the

 

Rivers of the globe

To cry 

Salut au Monde!

I salute you, O You Wonderful World,                                                                     

Salut au Monde!