Michigan Writers will present a reading of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. The poem, a part of “Leaves of Grass” and consisting of 52 cantos, will be read in its entirety at the State Theatre, October 6, at 1 pm. Admission will be free of charge.
This will be a true community reading. The young and old, businessmen and women, politicians, plumbers, carpenters, police officers, firemen, people of all religions, races and sexual orientations will read this quintessentially American poem to their friends, family, and fellow citizens. The goal is to gather together a group representative of the nation of which Whitman wrote and sang.
Each reader will present a canto. Multiple readers (small groups of classmates or fellow workers, e.g.) will recite a canto in unison. Music will be provided by well-know poet and composer, Jim Crockett.
“Song of Myself” is a piece that has been credited as “representing the core of Whitman’s poetic vision. Walter “Walt” Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.
So come, “loafe and invite your soul” to open up to this grand poem. Come, if you love to hear the “bravuras of birds, the bustle of growing wheat, the gossip of flames…” Come, if you believe that “a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”