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I think I first fell in love with him in my AP American Lit class. Described by Hollywood as a "sweaty-toothed madman" he possessed little to attract another other than his adept mastery of words. Words that somehow spoke into the depth of me.
He's really part of the reason I love words so much. The way he twisted them, wove them into vibrant, intricate picture-songs. I'd never seen or heard anything like it.
I love Walt Whitman. I love his "Song of Myself" from Leaves of Grass. I love the way his words inspired something inside me that lay dormant.
That's the beauty of reading, really. It's connecting with some idea in such a way that it awakens you to a newness, a different perspective, a fresh look.
April is National Poetry Month. I've got a bunch of resources at my Teachers Pay Teachers store for those of you who are interested. But I also want to celebrate this time in other ways as well.
Recently, I've been listening to some spoken word online. Today I found this site called Moving Poems. It pairs video artistry with spoken word. And it's beautiful. It's moving.
I just want to encourage you to look and listen to some of the poems today. Stretch yourself outside of the bounds of what you normally do. Find a poem that you really like and then share it with someone...share it with me!
23
"Endless unfolding of words of ages!
And mine a word of the modern, the word En-Masse.
A word of the faith that never balks,
Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept Time absolutely.
It alone is without flaw, it alone rounds and completes all,
That mystic baffling wonder alone completes all."