Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REMEMBER US, DREAMER (TO WALT WHITMAN), by VIRGINIA SCOTT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REMEMBER US, DREAMER (TO WALT WHITMAN), by                    
First Line: To you, lover and beloved, held in my heart
Last Line: Soul songs! And these, above all, we cherish -- light bearer!
Alternate Author Name(s): O'neill, Virginia Scott
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891)


To you, lover and beloved, held in my heart
(Even as you foretold -- I can never again escape you --)
To you I call. Pause on your way for a moment
And watch your world through these eyes.
Remember us, Comrade! Here are your people:
The contented -- the lost ones -- the seekers -- ascending together.
The revolving panorama, now darkening, now lightened a little.
Here the lean, calloused hand, with those red-pointed and perfumed;
Here the fumbling, palsied fingers, and the fumbling infant fingers;
Here the hands dark with machine grease, and hands adept in caressing;
Here the music-weaving fingers, with the eager ink-stained fingers
Gesticulate -- flutter -- and thrust -- building the nation.

Remember us, Prophet! Now your Democracy (sturdy as ever --
No less tumultuous than turbulent oceans that press her!)
Raises for you the haze of conflict which baffles so many.
Now mechanistic mumbling cities, greyed in robot toil
Seek light through clarion towers summoning clouds;
Now the drifting-patterned Mohave; the Nirvana-seeking mountains;
Now wary wilderness and acquiescent lake mirror the nation.
Remember us, Lover! Rapt, under your pressure of words --
Expanding -- finding shame too shabby a cloak for love's usage;
Learning the beauty of joyous creation; and of the harvesting womb;
And of the expressive caress; and of nakedness in the sunlight.
Remember us Dreamer! For we are tomorrow's poets and prophets,
Ripening the fruit of our birth through quiet God-guarded hours.
Absorbing strength from the sun; resurgent as oceans; at peace
With the altering tempo of rain and the intimate touch of silence.
Remember us, Seeker! We too hear the Great Companions;
And treading earth cycles toward Godhead
We find -- on the path you ascended -- torches still glowing --
Soul Songs! And these, above all, we cherish -- Light Bearer!





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