Walt Whitman Fantasy… by Matthew Brouwer

Walt Whitman Fantasy

Six o’clock

January darkness

Rainclouds pressed

against the face of the earth

like a razor

I’m sitting in my room trying to remember

how to write a poem

Think about putting on some ambient music

to push me out into the deep end

of my mind

But really, has that ever worked?

Maybe I should acquire some shrooms

But I don’t think that’s such a good idea

Shroom poet says some crazy shit

Think maybe I should give all my money

to the Lighthouse Mission

that would put me out to the edge

Probably not such a good idea neither

I just want to be like Walt Whitman

You know

in love with Everything!

Virginal Indian squaws

gay looking school boys

Christ-like deathbed union soldiers

sagely bearded frontiersmen

shitty American street corner vagrants

whales, spiders, cemetery grass

Everything!

Though if I ever met the man

I’d probably be scared as hell

or just disappointed

Because just like Jesus

no one could really ever be

like everything they said

Just like how I hope someday

some virulent young college-age

neo-hippie fanatic

will show up at a reading of mine

and be disappointed by me

To find I’m not that mountain lion

stalking about in my poems

Just the dial on your stereo

every day fine tuning a little this way

then a little that

trying to get the treble just right

Just the dial on the radio in your car

for a moment

Mahler’s 5th symphony

Adiagietto

A parousia of violins

and then once again nothing

except static

Matthew Brouwer is a performance poet, peer mentor, teaching artist, and organizational consultant residing in Bellingham, WA. (To listen to Matthew read the above poem click on Walt Whitman Fantasy)

3 thoughts on “Walt Whitman Fantasy… by Matthew Brouwer”

Some good ideas in there…

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Wonderful meteoric, metaphoric poem that will get the rise out of poetry lovers.

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Fine poem. Makes me want to be a better writer and person. It is the role and function of heroes to frighten and then disappoint. It’s what turns inspiration into action.

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