TuneTrack

I celebrate myself
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

Do you guess I have some intricate purpose?
Well I have, for the April rain has, and the mica on the side of a rock has.

Do you take it I would astonish?
Does the daylight astonish? Or the early redstart twittering through the woods?
Do I astonish more than they?

Well, this hour I tell you some things in confidence,
I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me, too
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

I think I could turn and live a while with the animals, they’re so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them sometimes half the day long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, not to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession.

Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,
My hurt turns livid upon me as I lean upon a cane and observe.
It is time to explain myself- let us stand up.

What is known I strip away,
I launch all men and women forward with me into the Unknown.

The clock indicates the moment- but what does eternity indicate?

Long enough have you dreamed contemptible dreams, my friend
Now I wash the gums from your eyes,
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life hence.

Remember, remember yourself. Remember, remember your soul.

Remember yourself. Remember your soul.