Walt Whitman Crowd Pleasers

This past Monday evening, April 29th, was the occasion of our Walt Whitman Read Out Loud!, in commemoration of the bicentennial of the birth of poet Walt Whitman in the township of Huntington.

Participants read favorite Whitman pieces aloud.  I share with you a partial list of the poems:

"Song of Myself 6"

"The One I Heard at the Close of Day"

"As I Ebbed with the Ocean of Life"

"On the Beach at Night"

"I Think I Could Turn and Live with Animals"

"When I Heard the Learned Astronomer"

"So Long!"

"Sleepers"

"Miracles"

"Roaming in Thought after Reading Hegel"

"Beautiful Women"

In contradiction of Whitman's reported lament that "no one gives a da-n about my prose," two readers, myself being one of them, read prose pieces:

From Specimen Days:

"Van Velsor and Whitman"

"My Passion for Ferries"

From Reminiscences (first published in the Camden Courier):

"Starting Newspapers": a delightful account of how Whitman founded The Long Islander, published to this day right here in Huntington, L.I., N.Y.!