21 Quotes About Walt-whitman

The Open Road goes to the used-car lot.

Part of what makes the book bizzare is that Whitman, because he wants to stand for everyone, because he wants to be less a historical person than a marker for democratic personhood, can't really write a memoir full of a life's particularities.

Too many poets act like a middle-aged mother trying to get her kids to eat too much cooked meat, and potatoes with drippings (tears). I don't give a damn whether they eat or not. Forced feeding leads to excessive thinness (effete). Nobody should experience anything they don't need to, if they don't need poetry bully for them. I like the movies too. And after all, only Whitman and Crane and Williams, of the American poets, are better than the movies.

Pleasured equallyIn seeking as in finding,Each detail minding,Old Walt went seekingAnd finding.

I think of myself as a descendant of traditions that would not have wanted me. Right? So, as long as I'm a queer writer, I'm Whitman's descendant. And he can't do nothing about it.

American teachers said I was illiterate, so they put me in ELL classes. Although I spoke English, I did not speak their English.

This isn’t my head I’ve got on now. I think this is something that used to belong to Walt Whitman.

I situate myself, and seat myself,And where you recline I shall recline,For every armchair belonging to you as good as belongs to me.I loaf and curl up my tailI yawn and loaf at my ease after rolling in the catnip patch."(From Meow of Myself, from LEAVES OF CATNIP)

You can never know where I am or what I am,But I am good company to you nonetheless,And really do regret I broke your inkwell."(From Meow of Myself, from LEAVES OF CATNIP)