Walt Whitman Visits Fabrizio Frosini Poem by Daniel Brick

Walt Whitman Visits Fabrizio Frosini

Rating: 5.0


A Fantasy for Fabrizio

A foot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before meleading me wherever I choose.
I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune.
Walt Whitman

Yes, me, American to the core, Poet of the Open Road!
That means a life of walking, hiking, trudging,
trekking, sauntering, oh, and loafing from time to time.
But in your time people race in vehicles,
no time left topursue the life of the roads.
They are always disappearing behind you. My favorite
roads wind along the wavy path parallel to a great river.
No short cuts, no straight lines. It keeps
you nimble and and alert, both body and soul engaged.

Roads are curious characters, like you and me.
They want to know everything about the world
they occupy, so they twist and bend, circle and
spiral, imprinting by movement itself
their landscapes in memories. They rejoice
in the upward climb and the downward rush.
We poets take time to walk. There is no
destination more important than each curve,
eachbump of the road itself. The roads know
thngs only perpetual journeyers learn.

What visions, what new selves
will be realized by the journey!
We must carry both flesh and spirit
across land and water and air
toward whatever destination for us
is marked on the inner map of our existence.
And that dark spirit, that soul
that propels us from within, must be
matched by a free mind, eating the light,
and plotting a direct path through daylight
and night. Such is the double vision of our being.

The roads delight in hugging the edges
of meadows and smelling the scents of
teeming wildflowers. They slow down
and rest in the shade of flourishing
great trees. But inevitably the heights
summon them. When they arrive on the highest
platau, they circle around and around,
making shifting patterns in the ground
that later journeyers will see as hieratic,
and invest with solemn meanings.You and I
are among those later journeyers, and we
nudge our lives forward by ascent and descent.

Again visions will flood our consciousnes,
and new selves will assume new roles
they will play with serious levity or
laughing intensity. Still many carry home
only their old selves, and complain about
the weight they fear to disgard. But we
let the the air dissolve our old selves
and delight in our new, supple, spacious
selves. Oh, does not space become time
in these heights? Do we not lavish our eyes
with brightening vistas, even as we stand,
rapt and silent, occupying a moment endlessly
extended, as if it were a road forever open
to eternity...

What will I say in departing? Perhaps it should be
a gesture: a shrug of my shoulders, a waving of both
hands, like a crazy fellow, a deep bow, as if I were
again playing the fool? But, no, it must be a farewell
of words, because we are poets, and the words we speak
and write we have borrowed from past eons and future eons
will borrow them from us. The words, the words, Fabrizio!
Spill them, toss them, give them as gifts to children,
lend them to the tongue-tied lover, teach the angry man
to use them instead of his fists, help the lonely connect
with them.

Fabrizio, my new and very old friend, fare thee well!

Friday, November 18, 2016
Topic(s) of this poem: fantasy,friendship
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Bharati Nayak 07 October 2020

I had read this poem many times.Every new read delights me more.Just amazing!

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Glen Kappy 23 January 2018

I’m glad I discovered this whole page of imaginative recreations of poets of yore. I enjoyed this one of Walt and look forward to coming back to the others, Daniel. -Glen

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Nosheen Irfan 20 November 2016

We nudge our lives forward by ascent and descent...such beautiful words. Full of wisdom and insight this write is truly enlightening. It's painful when we come to the end of the road in relations but there's always something to learn along the way. The journey is always worthwhile, not a moment wasted. The roads bend n turn...rise n fall but the journey is a pleasure n a great teacher. A life of walking, hiking, trudging, trekking, sauntering is never a waste. A great piece of writing. A perfect 10.

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Daniel Brick 30 November 2016

That's what's important in a Journey Poem - both the pleasure and the discovery are equally important We are always students of new and wonderful things. Let's go even if it's only a short walk, it's good for body and soul, always both in tandem.

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Liza Sudina 18 November 2016

seems a very sad poem. Why farewell?

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Fabrizio Frosini 18 November 2016

from the email you sent me 2 hours ago - your slightly modified closing version: '' What shall I say to you in departing? Or should it just be a gesture? A shrug of the shoulders? A waving of both hands, like some crazy fellow? Or a deep bow, as if I were playing the fool again? No, it must be words because we are poets, and we know words are breath, the very stuff of life. Words are always an incipient silence, as their sounds quickly decay but never to disappear completely: there is always the tiniest iota of sound forever fading into the air we breathe. I DEPART AS AIR... I SHAKE MY WHITE LOCKS THE RUNAWAY SUN, I EFFUSE MY FLESH IN EDDIES AND DRIFT IT IN LACY JAGS. I BEQUEATH MYSELF TO THE DIRT TO GROW FROM THE GRASS I LOVE, IF YOU WANT ME AGAIN LOOK FOR ME UNDER YOUR BOOT SOLES. FALLING TO FETCH ME AT FIRST KEEP ENCOURAGED, MISSING ME IN ONE PLACE SEARCH ANOTHER, I STOP SOMEWHERE WAITING FOR YOU. '' - Il vecchio Walt scompare.. ma il suo messaggio di addio rimane nella memoria digitale di questo sito web e nella mia memoria.. Caro amico, questa poesia che hai voluto dedicarmi è un regalo che mi onora.. Ti ringrazio di cuore! Ci siamo conosciuti quasi 2 anni fa - 23 mesi per l'esattezza :) - e l'amicizia che ci unisce, nata attraverso la Poesia, è la testimonianza che l'Umanità ha un Cuore e che la Fratellanza - quella vera, pura e disinteressata - esiste.

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