Going through old notebooks, I find, is like discovering notes former-me left for now-me. Former-me is pretty witty--here's a quote I like: "The Bush Administration makes me want to shove crayons up my nose until I am dumb enough to believe anything they say."
I'm reading Leaves of Grass right now, and it's astonishingly good. I forget that I have it, and then every few years I pick it up to re-read it, and then I want to run around reading it to people. No, listen, I want to say, Listen to this and it will change your life. Listen, and look, witness, and wait...
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led toward life, and does not wait at
the end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.
And this:
Beginning my studies the firrst step pleas'd me so much,
The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the power of motion,
The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love,
The first step I say awed me and pleas'd me so much,
I have hardly gone and hardly wish'd to go any farther,
But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.
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