to seek and to find.

can we just talk about walt whitman for a minute? ok.
i love walt whitman. i have a whitman tattoo. the names of both my blog and flickr, the tattoo quote and a few embroideries that i've done, all come from my most favorite poem of his:

the untold want
by life and land
ne’er granted
Now, Voyager
sail thou forth
to see and to find.

those six lines just say so much! many of the poems in leaves of grass speak of love, the strength of the individual, the wonders of the american life; subjects ranging from how great president lincoln is and celebrations of the soldiers of the civil war to poems that are so frank about love and sexuality that it was deemed 'obscene' upon it's first printings.

here is my favorite portion of song of the broad-axe:

11
her shape arises,
she, less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever;
the gross and soil’d she moves among do not make her gross and soil’d;
she knows the thoughts as she passes—nothing is conceal’d from her;
she is none the less considerate or friendly therefor;
she is the best belov’d—
it is without exception—
she has no reason to fear, and she does not fear;
oaths, quarrels, hiccupp’d songs,
smutty expressions, are idle to her as she passes;
she is silent—she is possess’d of herself—they do not offend her;
she receives them as the laws of nature receive them—she is strong,
she too is a law of nature—there is no law stronger than she is.

i wouldn't say that i'm a poetry fan by any means, but his writings are just so beautiful and they have inspired me on so many levels. there are loads of copies for sale on ebay, from 99¢ up to a first edition for $110,000. you can also read them all here, although i recommend reading them in book form because as whitman said himself, "...read me in the open air, i am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air." favorites to read: o you whom i often and silently come, there was a child went forth, i dream'd in a dream, among the multitude, and song of myself.