Wednesday poetry break – 8.20

If doleful, rocker chick was the tone of last week’s poem, today’s is far more reflective of how I generally view the world. Walt Whitman wasn’t your typical romantic, leading man-poet, starving in a garret or petted by fawning society. In an age of conformity, he walked alone. Working with illness, tragedy and sheer monotony — he still found magic in sensory experiences that transcended time and place….

Miracles by Walt Whitman

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night
with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet
and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

Miracle Music: Quality Shoe (Mark Knopler); Just Like Heaven (the Cure); Alice au Pays d’Arto (La Bottine Souriante); Ready for a Miracle (LeAnn Rimes); Sending Me Angels (Delbert McClinton); Secret o’ Life (James Taylor); Better (Regina Spektor); Rad Gumbo (Little Feat); Best of all Possible Worlds (Little Willies); Body & Soul (nothing better than the Coleman Hawkins version, except maybe the ‘Trane one); She’s a Rainbow (Rolling Stones); Blowin’ in the Wind (while no one out does Dylan, check out Dolly Parton’s cover duet with Nickel Creek); Aquarius (the 5th Dimension); Kiko and the Lavender Moon (Los Lobos); Rhapsody in Blue (fall in love with Glenn Miller’s version or the 5 Browns — just close your eyes and see the city); Rainbow Connection (Kermie is best, but Sarah McLachlan and John Storms-Rohm have nice takes); Seasons of Love (from Rent); Your Every Color (Train); All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints (Paul Simon); Keeping the Faith (Mary Chapin Carpenter); Linger for Awhile (Dan Zanes); and You Are What you Love (Jenny Lewis).

There are two ways to live your life. One is though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is. –> Albert Einstein

Take care,
Aly