"Always with Whitman" by Kathryn Kopple

I came across this poem today, and loved it so much I had to share. As one of my other friends recently said to me, "Whitman is my prophet."




ALWAYS WITH WHITMAN


I read his poems and no longer care who I might be.

If I am a woman let him imagine my skirt bright as a yellow awning,

a canopy generous and swaying over supple hips,

or let him imagine that I am a man and he lies awake in bed with me

under a roof of polished beams,

the flicker of the lamplight repeating in the windows.


And always I feel him close, his diction and intonation.

each syllable a chime struck against distress and absence,

each cadence an ointment, a balm to soften resentment,

and deposit on my lips some earthy souvenir,


the ash that lingers on the tongue,

the nectar that washes it clean.


--Kathryn Kopple

poem first published in Volume 1, Number 1 of The Hummingbird Review