WHITMAN MEMORIAL: Homage to an American Sage 

IMAGE: Two autumn leaves and a hint of a poem with a mysterious emergent space-time 
       vortex fusing all boundaries.

Tim:    (holding a lukewarm cup of coffee while looking the light shining through the air) 
        Whitman was more than a poet – he was a cultural icon. Along with Longfellow, 
        Emily Dickinson, and Helen Jackson, he altered the American literary landscape. 
        Many American 20th century poets are, in a sense, his grandchildren.

Ted:    (casting a skeptical glance at Tim while chewing some gum) For some, perhaps. 
        I think he's overrated. However, he was one of the icons from that era. In a sense, 
        he represented the very core of the American experiment, raw and singing.

Kris:   (smiling faintly, looking at her fingernails then glancing at Ted) Yeah, 
        he was the Allen Ginsberg of the 19th Century.

Terri:  (tilting her head thoughtfully) You could say that. Or perhaps Ginsberg was the 
        Whitman of a century later? In many ways, they both sing the same wild, expansive 
        hymn of life. Poets create their own tunes and not so different from musicians.

Tim:    (shrugging his shoulders, checking his cellphone while trying to feign politeness) 
        Whatever. . . Rhetoric has no end,  but human life is short.

Sam:    (waving a final farewell with a theatrical air) And so, my friends, is this conversation.


=================================================================================
from _AmeriSong: Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Amerika_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY: An image and conversation about Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and cultural icons.
KEYWORDS: Walt Whitman, American poets, 1819 births, 1892 deaths, Ginsberg & Whitman

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun:  2007 in Tokyo, Japan / Finished:  2025 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

< LAST    https://www.tnewfields.info/AmeriSong/primi.htm
  TOC     https://www.tnewfields.info/AmeriSong/index.html
  NEXT >  https://www.tnewfields.info/AmeriSong/space.htm