The Path Worn in the Grass Reading
Photographic evidence from last night's celebration of Walt Whitman's 190th birthday. The Path Worn in the Grass featured 25 poets doing a marathon reading of Song of Myself (...there is no stoppage and never can be stoppage...). It took 2 hours and 45 minutes, and nearly everyone stayed for the entire thing because what could have been a total snooze was compelling and prescient. Whitman's words still hold up today. Many, many thanks to Rupert Fike for organizing this event and Ron Hughes and Composition Gallery for hosting it. The readers included Cleo Creech, Theresa Davis, Christine Swint, Tania Rochelle, Stephen Bluestone, Robin Kemp, Kodac Harrison, Beth Gylys, Alice Lovelace, Bill Taft, Franklin Abbott, Amy Pence, Alice Teeter, Karen Head, Karen G. and many others. Be sure to check out Cleo's cool video slideshow of the event below, too!
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To Whitman lovers, I recommend Daniel Mark Epstein's Whitman and Lincoln: Parallel Lives In Washington, D. C.
Lincoln is known to have read Leaves Of Grass. Among other things, Epstein suggests that it impacted Lincoln's oratory. It's a wonderful book; I actually slowed down my reading of it to stretch out its pleasures.