Whitman Photograph At La Sebastiana On
Cerro Bellavista, in Neruda’s fourth-floor study, I
saw the large photograph of Whitman in pinstripes, Whitman
in Valparaiso looking out on the city–– Its
tangle of streets, ships & bordellos, its Pomegranates
& balconies, news stands & Kites
lost in trees, its amorous passions of lovers Kissing
on benches oblivious to the dangers unbuttoning The heart in its cracked windshield of
going. In
my forty-seventh year, we three in that Happy
cosmic hour spoke of the inevitable caminos For
them who love iniquity, who claim Death’s Power
as their own, who know not that only Those
things that cannot be shaken remain. Valparaiso,
Chile 29 July 2000 [Published in Quien Sabe Mountain: Poems 1998-2004. © 2004 by Jim Cohn.] |
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