BREATHE the air of spring

"In all pure poetic work there must especially come in the power to suck in the air of spring, to put it into song, to breathe it forth again—the palpable influence of spring, the new entrance to life."

Do you understand what this man is saying?! Do you understand what Walt is going on about??

Have you harnessed the power to SUCK IN THE AIR OF SPRING?! Have you smelled it? Have you tasted it? Have you absorbed it into your being and breathed it forth again? Have you?

Have you???

There's nothing else. I've seen it. I've looked. There are many things like it but the resonant frequency of being on this Earth is encapsulated in this sentence by Mr. Walter Whitmanthony himself! Stop looking! It's right here! If you keep looking then you've gone passed it and you'll maybe never find it. It's right here! It's the start line that you've failed to cross and you're headed the complete opposite direction looking for a finish!

This isn't about poetry! Do you know what Walt Whitman thought about poetry?? He said,

"Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d the earth much?

Have you practis’d so long to learn to read?

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,

You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)

You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,

You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."

HE'S SAYING YOU MUST LIVE! HE'S SAYING THE CLOSEST THING A POEM CAN EVER APPROXIMATE TO IS GIVING YOU SOME SEMBLANCE OF WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO LIVE!

IF POETRY WERE A LA CROIX ITS FLAVOR WOULD BE LIFE AND LIFE IS FOUND IN SUCKING IN THE AIR OF SPRING!

It's not any more complicated than that. 

Walt Whitman said,

"To elaborate is no avail, learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is so."

You can't puzzle it out! You can't think your way to it. The only thing you can do is feel it in your whole lungs and then remind yourself that YES! YES! THIS IS THE ENTRANCE TO NEW LIFE!

IT'S LIKE A DOOR! IT'S LIKE A THRESHOLD THAT YOU CROSS AND YOU KNOW YOU'VE CROSSED IT BUT THERE'S NO OTHER THERE THAT IS THERE! YOU JUST KNOW YOU'VE CROSSED IT! YOU CAN'T STAY AND AS SOON AS YOU'VE ARRIVED YOU'VE DEPARTED BUT BREATHE THE AIR! BREATHE THE AIR OF SPRING!

BREATHE THE AIR OF SPRING!