Walt Whitman

     Walt Whitman photographed in 1854.

     I have always been partial to poems. So much packed into a few words and stanzas. The NJ doctor, William Carlos Williams, for whom the New Jersey poet laureate citation is named, has a wonderful quote about poetry:

"It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."

     Most people I've known don't make time for poetry. It can't be read as quickly as a novel or a textbook. One must savor the words and muse about what the poet means. I was told as a young man that to memorize poetry was a good way to spend some time. In my youth I did commit a number of poems to memory, mostly British writers from the Romantic and Victorian periods. With the Bard, William Shakespeare, for his sonnets also part of my personal pantheon.

     I came to know Whitman much later in life. A book which my father bought and I have carried around on my various moves is Leaves Of Grass.  I can't say I have read it from beginning to end. I have opened it many times and picked spots at random to think read and think about. That in my estimation is the sign of a good book, that you can open it at intervals and marvel at the words contained within.