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Evening Thoughts (part two)

from The Enlightened by Johan Troch

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String atmospherics by Eric Hopton, mixed and produced
by Johan Troch.
An excerpt from 'Leaves Of Grass' (1855) written by
Walt Whitman, recited by Tom O'Bedlam.

lyrics

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and from offspring taken soon
out of their mothers' laps,
And here you are the mothers' laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their
laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward . . . . and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

I believe a leave of grass is no less, that a journey work of the stars.
I think i could turn and live with animals.
the're so placid, and self-contained.
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things.
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago.
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

credits

from The Enlightened, released January 18, 2015
Poem recited by Tom O'Bedlam
© 2014 /2015 Adagio Productions

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Johan Troch Belgium

Belgian composer Johan Troch is known for his
instrumental and avant-garde compositions.

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