Where the Future Becomes Present

Where the Future Becomes Present

"The greatest poet places himself where the future becomes present." — Walt Whitman

It is shocking to hold a book of poetry, begin reading, and feel the presence of the author transported instantaneously from another century into my very hands. I am the future to this author, Walt Whitman, and he foretells my presence which converges in the eternal now.

While listening to the following excerpt from one of his poems (below), see if you can tap into the higher state that Whitman offers, the lack of which all “will be useless.” Bring self-remembering, which is “hinted at,” to this reading connecting Whitman’s consciousness, “as Souls only understand Souls,” to yours.

Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand

By Walt Whitman

Whoever you are holding me now in hand,

Without one thing all will be useless,

I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,

I am not what you supposed, but far different.

Who is he that would become my follower?

Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?

The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps destructive,

You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole and exclusive standard,

Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting,

The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon’d,

Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders,

Put me down and depart on your way.

…

For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,

Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it,

Nor do those know me best who admire me and vauntingly praise me,

Nor will the candidates for my love (unless at most a very few) prove victorious,

Nor will my poems do good only, they will do just as much evil, perhaps more,

For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit, that which I hinted at;

Therefore release me and depart on your way.

“Only themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves, As Souls only understand Souls.”— Walt Whitman

Join the discussion