A Walt Whitman Birthday Party with Poetry Readings, Presentations and Cake

A Whitman Reader by Holy Cow! Press

"Give me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling!"
--Walt Whitman

There were undoubtedly many significant people born in 1819. A short list might include Abner Doubleday, credited with founding American baseball; Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick and other great stories; Alan Pinkerton, the famous detective and founder of the Pinkerton Agency; and Queen Victoria,  who shares a May 24 birthday with Robert Zimmerman, preceding it by 122 years.

And then there was Walt Whitman, one of the most influential poets in the American canon.

On Friday evening, May 31 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. there will be a celebration here in Duluth of his 200th birthday at the Hartley Nature Center on Woodland Avenue. Organized by Duluth Poet Laureate Gary Boelhower, the event "Walt Whitman at 200: A Birthday Party with Poetry Readings, Presentations, and Cake" will feature readings by Duluth Poets Laureate Bart Sutter, Deborah Cooper, Sheila Packa, Ellie Schoenfeld, and Gary Boelhower along with presentations by Mara Hart, Professors John D. Schwetman, and Chris Johnson.

The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served.

Events like this one give evidence that the poetic vision and spirit still lives for as Whitman himself wrote, "To have great poets, there must be great audiences too."

* * * *
A few noteworthy lines from this 19th Century bard...

As for me, I know nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under the trees in the woods,
Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,
Or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring,
What stranger miracles are there?

* * * *
"It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them. And perhaps it is the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess."

* * * *
"Peace is always beautiful."

* * * *

Related Links
Why Walt Whitman Called America the "Greatest Poem"
Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song
Whitman, Dylan and Me: Uncanny Connections