Previous | Next :: The Song of the Open Road : i75 : Ohio | November 25, 2012, 1:44 pm

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Song of the Open Road

by Walt Whitman

--

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

--

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,

Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,

Strong and content I travel the open road.

--

The earth, that is sufficient,

I do not want the constellations any nearer,

I know they are very well where they are,

I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

--

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,

I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,

I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,

I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

--

The song of the Open Road (only part one of much more ) .......... By The great American poet Walt Whitman ......... perhaps America's most influential poet.

Sometimes the road can feel open and optimistic like the opening of this poem ....... Certainly the call of the road can......... obviously then there is the reality and the grind of it all.......... All that grind somehow never actually dissipates the draw of the road........... not for those who feel it...........

A new movie is coming of Jack Kerouac's famed generation defining novel "The Road' no doubt that will mix the dream the glamor and the sometimes sordid reality......... without punctuation......... like the original book and the reality of travel :-)) ..............

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

PS............ Here is the slightly more accessible modern musical version of the search, the hope and possibility of the road and the sky ...... that Walt Whitman is articulating........ Foo Fighters Wheels

www.jezblog.com

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