Thursday, July 18, 2019

letters from God






I have said that the soul is not more than the body, 
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, 
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is,
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own 
funeral drest in his shroud, 
And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the 
earth, 
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the 
learning of all times, 
And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it 
may become a hero, 
And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel’d 
universe, 
And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed 
before a million universes. 

And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God, 
For I who am curious about each am not curious about God, 
(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and 
about death.) 

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the 
least, 
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. 

Why should I wish to see God better than this day? 
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment 
then, 
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the 
glass, 
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign’d 
by God’s name, 
And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe’er I go, 
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.




~ Walt Whitman
photo by Edward Weston



1 comments:

Timothy said...

Beautiful. I have not read this Whitman poem before. You're on a roll.