On Instagram yesterday I posted a quote from one of my favourite poems.
I thought I might explain myself further now that I have some time.
Why I love Walt Whitman’s poem I Sit and Look Out:
The main reason I love this poem is despair.
Here it is. Read it and guess what year it was written …
I SIT and look out, WALT WHITMAN
I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid—I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill’d, to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these—All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.
The year it was written? 1945? 1918? 1953? 1865? 1975? 1890?
The above poem was written about 1900 but is relevant to any year really.
Things haven’t changed; we haven’t learnt much. I still despair when I hear about what is happening around me. I sit and look. I don’t know where to begin and what difference I could make in the big scheme of things. I try to be a good person, treat others the way I want to be treated. Hell, I’m not perfect but would never intentionally hurt someone. Cruelty to others is unforgivable –especially cruelty to children – innocent and defenceless. As for war … as the song goes, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing …
I don’t understand war – no reason is good enough – don’t give me reasons of politics, territory, religion. And if it is about religion … well there’s such irony in that. I’ll let the following song (which is still one of my favourites) tell you how I feel …
DEAR GOD, XTC (Andy Partridge)
Dear God, hope you got the letter, and…
I pray you can make it better down here.
I don’t mean a big reduction in the price of beer
But all the people that you made in your image, see
Them starving on their feet ’cause they don’t get
Enough to eat from God, I can’t believe in you
Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but… I feel that I should be heard
Loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
And all the people that you made in your image, see them fighting
In the street ’cause they can’t make opinions meet about God,
I can’t believe in you
Did you make disease, and the diamond blue? Did you make
Mankind after we made you? And the devil too!
Dear God, don’t know if you noticed, but… your name is on
A lot of quotes in this book, and us crazy humans wrote it, you
Should take a look, and all the people that you made in your
Image still believing that junk is true. Well I know it ain’t, and
So do you, dear God, I can’t believe in I don’t believe in
I won’t believe in heaven and hell. No saints, no sinners, no
Devil as well. No pearly gates, no thorny crown. You’re always
Letting us humans down. The wars you bring, the babes you
Drown. Those lost at sea and never found, and it’s the same the
Whole world ’round. The hurt I see helps to compound that
Father, Son and Holy Ghost is just somebody’s unholy hoax,
And if you’re up there you’d perceive that my heart’s here upon
My sleeve. If there’s one thing I don’t believe in
It’s you….
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Maybe one person can make a difference but I am not that person.
Instead … I see, hear and am silent.
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