Walt Whitman’s monumental collection of poems Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, explores many themes and ideas, but the one common factor that each of his poems reflect is the natural world, whether it is the season, landscapes, animals, plants, flowers, or grass. Apart from beauty, Whitman celebrates nature because we are part of it. Therefore, whether we are conscious of it or not, we move with the pulse of the natural world and have our being in it. This is the theme of the following poem I wrote, a kind of ode to the Whitman spirit.
WALKING WITH WHITMAN
The earth moves and we move with it,
in the turning of every season’s knowing weather,
in the care of the colours they wear:
green, yellow and maple red:
we take them with cupped hands.
And in the grand silence of the snow,
we rest, like the trees that stand sleeping,
having readied their buds for spring,
certain that spring will come,
the way the sun will rise
after it has set.