to be like Whitman

 

the song we sing

the song,

maybe even before we talked,

we sang,

each person can release who they are

into action upon the world that is a song of self,

just as Walt Whitman eloquently described,

when an acting is personal, real,

it is a belting out of inside to outside,

I love the distinctive person

who denies the critic the power

to intimidate the risky release,

now I see former middle school students

ready selves to graduate from high school,

and I hope for all of them to be like Whitman

and sing who they are with clarity, with bravery,

and the song will work,

even if the audience can’t yet hear it clearly,

maybe the next one will,

our granddaughter has found a song to sing 

with the strokes of “crew,”

it is not all who she is, 

but it is a song her whole self plays to the world,

the world needs such jamming when each of us sings.

by Henry H. Walker

June 10, ‘21