Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SELF, by JAMES OPPENHEIM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SELF, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once I freed myself of my duties to tasks and
Last Line: Myself and I, long parted, clasping and married till death.
Subject(s): Self


ONCE I freed myself of my duties to tasks and
people and went down to the cleansing sea...
The air was like wine to my spirit,
The sky bathed my eyes with infinity,
The sun followed me, casting golden snares on the tide,
And the ocean -- masses of molten surfaces, faintly gray-blue -- sang to my heart...

Then I found myself, all here in body and brain, and all there on the shore:
Content to be myself: free, and strong, and enlarged:
Then I knew the depths of myself were the depths of space,
And all living beings were of those depths (my brothers and sisters)
And that by going inward and away from duties, cities, street-cars and greetings,
I was dipping behind all surfaces, piercing cities and people,
And entering in and possessing them, more than a brother,
The surge of all life in them and in me...

So I swore I would be myself (there by the ocean)
And I swore I would cease to neglect myself, but would take myself as my mate,
Solemn marriage and deep: midnights of thought to be:
Long mornings of sacred communion, and twilights of talk,
Myself and I, long parted, clasping and married till death.





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