This reading continues the majestic sequence “By Blue Ontario’s Shore” from Walt Whitman’s incomparable Leaves of Grass, covering sections 11 & 12.

Leaves of Grass editor Karen Karbiener notes about “By Blue Ontario’s Shore”:

“From its first appearance in 1856, this poem has functioned as Whitman’s definitive social statement. In 1856 it constituted a broad directive for how the country might be unified; the poem echoed many of the commands of the Preface, and actually used or modified many of its most powerful statements.”

A message from the past:

We interrupt the regularly scheduled eternity for a message from Walt Whitman, the poet of America, who considered his book to be America itself. Hundreds of millions of citizens and immigrants all together the leaves of this grass, the growth and maintenance of these States, this vast lawn of a constitutional republic.

Speak to me Walt Whitman, deliver to me your vision of America. Chant and enumerate it, and like a spell spoken we will recover it, magically the psyche of the nation will return to itself, as a dangerous power play against American priniples falls of its own devices. Yes, they will fall of their own devices, and this verse will embrace the protectors of America, the uniters of America. Walt Whitman was the original bard and uniter of America, and so as bards we must sing these songs and keep them alive.

Maybe you don’t like my style – I completely understand. I would like to hear how Leaves of Grass sounds to you, I’d like to hear your voice too speak them. Why is there no national Whitman reading club org? Should I be in charge of it?

There is the Walt Whitman archive, which strains to organize all the different drafts and iterations of Leaves of Grass (https://whitmanarchive.org).

But this all so texty, I want the living soul of it too, for the voice is the body of the soul, and so with Leaves of Grass, and the body of this text.

Isn’t there an academic somewhere undertaking this spoken word Whitman project? Or is Whitman not the poet of America? Is Whitman not important enough for that?

Contact me Hollywood insiders if you are interested in producing my pilot screenplay and treatment for a mini-series about Whitman.

We’re in a constitutional crisis and I need Walt Whitman right now.

In this episode I take a break from reading “By Blue Ontario’s Shore” to become possessed by a barking, chanting, deliberate spirit of Whitman, who arrives as a voice from the past to tell us how from over the carnage will rise prophetic a voice.

And Whitman knew carnage, as we will hear in the second half of my reading of “By Blue Ontario’s Shore.”

Part two of my reading of “By Blue Ontario’s Shore” by Walt Whitman.

Leaves of Grass editor Karen Karbiener notes about the sequence “By Blue Ontario’s Shore”:

“From its first appearance in 1856, this poem has functioned as Whitman’s definitive social statement. In 1856 it constituted a broad directive for how the country might be unified; the poem echoed many of the commands of the Preface, and actually used or modified many of its most powerful statements.”

I return to my first love and my last love, the poem of America, the incomparable Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This post covers sections one through three, Leaves of Grass Deathbed Edition.

In part 2 I do bible quotes and then wrap it all up with a profound flourish.

In truth, I started this blog because there is a coherent value system I wanted to elaborate which I termed anarcho-spiritual, a silly name, honestly, but one I live with now because at one time I thought it sounded kind of cool and made it a .com on WordPress.

In reality, however, the belief system is just an interpretation of tradition and the gospel, which I don’t hear anybody explaining as the useful and extreme doctrine that it is.

It takes a while to unfold these things. Perhaps this blog is just a means to expressing it somewhere else or some other way. Wherever I am in the process, the main tenet doesn’t really change: there is a supraphysical force which reflects all of a person’s actions, words, and intentions into another dimension, a subtler dimension which is more like undifferentiated clear light than materiality.

I’ll keep posting more pieces like this between poetry readings and my other rantings.

I continue my lyric poetry sequence, Loosely Connected Yous, with this new part, which is actually directly connected to the previous one.

Thank you for listening.

Here I start a new track and begin scripture readings, beginning with the Book of Psalms, Psalms 1 through 6.

The edition I use is the New American Bible Revised Edition, which is a reliable, middle of the road English translation, which also has some good footnotes. I quote from the copy which I’ve used for scripture since 2012.

Well I’m back to my own readings, after being so rudely interrupted by the likes of R.M. Rilke, and his elegies so artfully rendered by Stephen Mitchell.

Loosely Connected Yous is my first book, so be gentle with me, it’s probably not very good poetry. But it’s a lyric sequence that has stuck with me over the years. As simplistic as it is, originality has always been my goal, and these formulations always felt unique to me, sourced from my body in some way, for good or bad.

I took this lyric poetry sequence from my publication “Selected Collected 2009,” and this reading I recorded in a 15th anniversary edition and final recording in April 2024.

I did this as I begin to publish my entire back catalogue, which is extensive. Indeed, it’s hard to know where to start with my work. Therefore, I went ahead and shored up the very beginning, and recovered these poems and formatted them into a handsome new edition.

Perhaps sometime in the future, if demand warrants, I will haul out some of the other sequences from “Selected Collected 2009 by Ignacio Valentore,” such as “Different Kinds of Rains,” “Odes to Water,” and “Because you’re a gd human being!”