Song of the Open Road - Whitman (Dave's Edit)
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
This hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and absolute.
Listening to others, considering well what they say.
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating.
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.
I did not know I held so much goodness.
All seems beautiful to me.
Here a great personal deed has room,
Here is a man tallied — he realizes here what he has in him.
The past, the future, majesty, love — if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.
The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is happiness,
I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times,
Now it flows unto us, we are rightly charged.
Allons! whoever you are come travel with me!
Traveling with me you find what never tires.
The earth never tires,
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
We will sail pathless and wild seas!
Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements,
Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity.
These are the days that must happen to you.
Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them!
They too are on the road—they are the swift and majestic men — they are the greatest women,
Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas.
Allons! to that which is endless as it was beginningless,
To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls.
Forever alive, forever forward,
Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble, dissatisfied.
They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go,
But I know that they go toward the best — toward something great.
Allons! the road is before us!