Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 142
A Nature Book Reader
ANNA WOOD
Anna Wood believes in the radical possibilities of pleasure. She has just
finished her first book.
Song Of Myself Walt Whitman
One of my favourite pieces
of writing – Walt Whitman’s
long poem Song Of Myself,
from his collection Leaves
Of Grass – is about nature
in the most ordinary and
also the most infinite sense.
It has a whole beautiful
verse about what grass is,
and a description of having
sex with the sea (kind of,
you have to read it really)
that makes me swoony and
horny and thrilled. Song Of
Myself embraces the whole
glorious cosmos, celebrates
every inch of your flesh and
mine. And it introduced me
to words and phrases like
‘pismire’, ‘omnific’, ‘gneiss’,
‘kelson’ and ‘mad for it’ (I
read this long before I heard
anything from the Gallagher
brothers). Also, you can read
out loud almost any line from
this poem and it will make
you feel good. Try it: “And a
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mouse is miracle enough to
stagger sextillions of infidels”,
or “The spotted hawk
swoops by and accuses me,
he complains of my gab and
my loitering”. Or what about:
“I tucked my trowser-ends
in my boots and went and
had a good time”, or “I know
I have the best of time and
space – and that I was never
measured, and never will be
measured.”
There is such pleasure in
Song Of Myself, such carnal
delight, and such joy at the
universe and being part of it.
Whitman is all connectedness
and curiosity – there is no
glimpse of meanness or fear
of the unknown. To me he
shows how society, people,
pleasure and nature all belong
together, part of the same
whole. You don’t need to read
up on cosmic consciousness
or transcendentalism to work
