Weekly Whitman

As we gather to listen you will find this episode a pivot point. Walt and I begin here at section 16 of "Starting From Paumanok," the long-form, microcosmic, final inscription piece to Leaves of Grass. I conclude the reading by barking out a version of the opening to "Song of Myself." I intend to release audio-only versions of all my Weekly Whitmans. I'm releasing this one...

"But you ye untold latencies will thrill to every page. . ."

This episode begins at section 14 of "Starting From Paumanok," the long-form, free-wheeling final Inscription poem, set in the book before the Leaves lead us into "Song of Myself," and Whitman's immortal opening lines, uttered originally in 1855, and in the soul many years before then, and still the same words in the Deathbed edition - "I celebrate myself, and sing mys...

America's poet being orated for the first time, I mean really declaimed -

Hello camerados close, Walt and I pick it up at the opening to section 11 of "Starting From Paumanok," the 19 section long final inscription poem to Leaves of Grass, and continue on to the end of section 13. We will start up again next week at the top of section 14. Won't you join us, won't you sing with us?

My July 4th reading of the opening inscriptions from Leaves of Grass continues at section 8 of the epic final inscription piece "Starting from Paumanok." This episode carries us to the end of section 10. We'll pick it up next week at the top of section 11. Line by line, song by song, state by state - reciting the poem of America one week at a time.

In case you are just now tuning in, in the first episode I was seduced by the ghost of Walt Whitman. In spiritual union, I came to possess and be possessed by this ghost, in its voice and its essence, its calling and its afterburn of images. This episode begins at section four of "Starting From Paumanok," the epic final Inscription piece to Leaves of Grass. I read through to the end of s...

Open the leaves. Turn the page. Tune the voice. Sing the book. Air the soul, line by line. We begin on page 1, the initial inscription, a greeting, a mantra, a principle. Then we flow through the inscriptions and land on the epic final inscription, "Starting from Paumanok." The recording ends on section 3 of "Starting from Paumanok," and intends to go all the way to the end of...