the Whitman Trials

Attempting to imitate the work of a great poet is like attempting to sleep in your roommate's bed...



When I Came to the Last Place
      (an ode to Whitman's When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer)


When I came to the last place,
When I was long, lean, wrangled before myself,
When I came to dance in the spit of soft blood, to take,
pull back, and to change the floors
When I went before the people in the room
     with much dismay, and explained how it is
To shake yourself out all over the world,
How I knew they wanted to laugh,
How tired they were of experts, and I found
Myself alone under the languid moon-hair of
The sky, knowing the fool who preaches an expert
Life might as well be trying to sell the stars.


A Girl's Recall
  (an ode to Whitman's A Child's Amaze)


I was often stripped down as a little girl
to the pendulum under my clothes,
surprised to find time in my belly, in mid-swing.

Read Whitman's A Child's Amaze & Astronomer