Song of Myself: In Cadence with the Present

“I have heard what the talkers were talking . . . .
the talk of the beginning and the end,
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”

This excerpt is from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman, which was part of his poetry collection book, Leaves of Grass.

Song of Myself is a very long free verse poem and I still haven’t finished it as much as I’d like to. However, the above verses kinda stuck with me and I felt compelled to write about them even if just briefly.

source

Walt Whitman appeared to have been a keen observer of life. A true poet. He recognized that youth, age, heaven, or hell—is as complete and perfect now as it ever will be.

I believe his message is simple, old yet ever new: Keep your eyes on the present moment—it’s all we truly have. The past is gone, and the future may never come, so why not move in cadence with the present? It may sound cliché, but we often fail to do so and regret it later. Why not embrace Thoreau's approach to life, as he expressed in Walden: "I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Many of us are living in the past, while others are constantly striving and thinking about what lies ahead—indeed, they are the unstoppable bunch. We study life and look longingly for it instead of living it.

I’d like to share a quick word about reading poetry: people often say that reading a poem takes a lot of effort—that it requires a lot of 'thinking' because of its complexity, making it difficult to understand.

They overcomplicate it; they feel like they need to understand it immediately, and trying too hard to find something that isn’t there yet. Accept what you get in the moment; don’t force it, but allow it to act on you. You must allow it to do whatever work it wants to do on you. This doesn’t mean you have no role or effort to contribute. Understanding a good poem is often worth whatever effort you are willing to invest.

Here’s a tip for reading poetry from an author Mortimer Adler: “Read it straight through without stopping.” Don’t get caught up on words or lines you don’t immediately understand—you’ll miss the forest for the trees if you do.

Reading poems is not just a one-time activity; they're not meant to be read only once. To truly understand them, you may need to revisit it many times. There’s always something new to be found in it. Each reading offers something new – fresh delights, deeper insights, unexpected discoveries about yourself and life!

I’d like to believe that poets don’t require their readers to see eye to eye with them—though it would surely please them if they did. Instead, poets encourage their readers to be like them: free explorers, discovering treasures in their own unique way. The key to understanding poetry lies in this simple truth – (imaginative) literature doesn’t tell; it only suggests. It primarily pleases rather than teaches.

Go on, dive into the world of poetry—choose your poet and let their words and musings playfully ignite and broaden your imagination.