Sketch of Myself/ Self-Portrait

Sketch of Myself/ Self-Portrait

      From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,
                        Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute,
                      Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
                             pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
                 Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would
                      hold me.      

                                         I inhale great draughts of space,
               The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

                                          I am larger than I thought,
                                 I did not know I held so much goodness.

                                            All seems beautiful to me;
                 I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me, I
                                       would do the same to you,

                                      I will recruit for myself and you as I go;
                            I will scatter myself among men and women as I go;
                         I will toss the new gladness and roughness among them;
                                   Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
                     Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me…

                                                          Excerpt from the ‘Song of the Open Road’
                                                                      By Walt Whitman

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself”