I SING the Body electric;
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1883)
I sing a song that Whitman never knew
He never knew nor ever felt the din
Within the metalled din I answer to
With fiber-optic answers on my skin
This insulated skin that rides the ring
And in the ring remakes the matter true
More true than all the masters knew to sing
I sing a song that Whitman never knew
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The idea for this poem started in a simple observation... "The Body Electric" to Whitman, meant something very specific to him (about which one could write extensively), but in a sense the internet, which is my poetic medium, is a "body electric" as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I get what it meant to Whitman...
ReplyDelete