{"id":82080,"date":"2023-08-17T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/?p=82080"},"modified":"2023-08-17T11:35:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T11:35:00","slug":"poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/entertainment\/poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: From \u2018Letters to Walt Whitman\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you grow up in Kansas, as both Ronald Johnson and I did, you learn very quickly that beauty is too often kept secret. It is easy to believe that no one else could know the sublimity of fields. Johnson\u2019s poem, however, wagers on the transmissibility of awe. His work has always been like a secret beauty, too \u2014 often circulating in poetry\u2019s subterranean networks, treasured by readers but difficult to find. Johnson\u2019s 1969 book \u201cValley of the Many-Colored Grasses,\u201d in which this poem appears, has been reissued by The Song Cave, a small poetry press, making this early book available to a new generation of readers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From \u2018Letters to Walt Whitman'<\/h2>\n

By Ronald Johnson <\/p>\n

I hear you whispering there O stars of heaven,<\/em>
O suns\u2014O grass of graves\u2026<\/em>
If you do not say anything how can I say anything?<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us tunnel<\/p>\n

the air
(as a mole\u2019s green galleries)
toward the ultimate <\/p>\n

cornfield
\u2014 the square of gold, & green, & of tassle<\/p>\n

that rustles back at us \u2014<\/p>\n

let us burrow in
to a susurration, the dense starlings,<\/p>\n

of the real \u2014
the huge
sunflowers waving back at us,<\/p>\n

\u2014 the great grassy world<\/p>\n

that surrounds us,
singing.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Anne Boyer<\/strong> is a poet and an essayist. Her memoir about cancer and care, \u201cThe Undying,\u201d won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Ronald Johnson<\/strong> was born in Ashland, Kan., in 1935 and died in 1998. He was romantically involved with the poet and publisher Jonathan Williams throughout the 1960s, and they walked the Appalachian Trail and wandered around England before Johnson moved to San Francisco. There, Johnson managed a famous gay leather bar, wrote a number of cookbooks and became a founder of the Rainbow Motorcycle Club, a gay social club. His other books of poems include \u201cA Line of Poetry, A Row of Trees\u201d (1964), \u201cSongs of the Earth\u201d (1970), \u201cRadi os\u201d (1977), \u201cARK\u201d (1996, 2013) and \u201cThe Shrubberies\u201d (2001).<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you grow up in Kansas, as both Ronald Johnson and I did, you learn very quickly that beauty is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[516],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoem: From \u2018Letters to Walt Whitman\u2019 - happy LifeStyle inc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/entertainment\/poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poem: From \u2018Letters to Walt Whitman\u2019 - happy LifeStyle inc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you grow up in Kansas, as both Ronald Johnson and I did, you learn very quickly that beauty is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/entertainment\/poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"happy LifeStyle inc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-17T11:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Poem-From-\u2018Letters-to-Walt-Whitman.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/entertainment\/poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/happylifestyleinc.com\/entertainment\/poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman\/\",\"name\":\"Poem: From \u2018Letters to Walt Whitman\u2019 - 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