I dream'd in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the
whole of the rest of the earth,
I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led
the rest,
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
And in all their looks and words.
~Walt Whitman 1884
In December 2001 I was looking for something to send with my Christmas cards. I needed to find something that would put into words what I was feeling. I wanted to acknowledge what our city and our country was going through. Thankfully I came across Whitman's poem, I Dream'd In A Dream. I found tremendous hope in Whitman's words, they carried me for a long while after the attacks. This morning I was reading another Whitman poem on Writerquake's site in honor of September 11th. It reminded me to go look for mine.
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3 comments:
Lovely poem.
Did you know that the kids and I were in the city with your father the week before? We actually came back home exactly one week before. We ate lunch on a bench on one of the dividing things(name escapes me) on a busy street that day. I love that memory, we had tomatoes from the garden too. Weird to think of that now- I remember driving out of the city snapping away at all of the buildings - capturing a bit of the towers,so unreal.
What a great quote - I love Walt Whitman.
The Whitman poem you published here is so beautiful, and new to me. Thanks so much for sharing and for the mention of my blog, too. :)
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