Journal Article

FILAMENTS OF WORD AND IMAGE: A FRAGMENTED REFLECTION ON ALLEN CRAWFORD'S WHITMAN ILLUMINATED: SONG OF MYSELF

Moe, Aaron M

2024

Overview

All the known forms are present (plant, flower, tree, insect, critter, animal, fire, water, air, earth) but in surprises hitherto unknown ... in relations not yet perceived . . . not yet divined in full so rich is this new thing. o And what internal energy combusts and churns and implodes and explodes within the gulf of a maker? I daresay that it's why Whitman's \"A Noiseless Patient Spider\" reigns quintessential in understanding poetic being. All that energy, all the sounds and silences, all those spinning electrons whirling and combining within the soul/ abdomen of the poet/spider, waiting to be unleashed as an ever-driving pursuit and expression of being. o Ed Folsom discusses the physicality of Whitman's making his books, highlighting how the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass \"was self-published.\" Each night before bed, I slathered my hand in sports cream and covered it with a sock, like an aging baseball player.5 Crawford-like Whitman-necessarily slowed down in his reading and response to Song of Myself unlocking a kind of deep-reading that's inspiring not only for its excellence, but also for the sheer physicality of the demand. o SLOWDOWN!!- YOU CANNOT SPEED-READ THIS!- YOU ARE NOT AFTER INFORMATION!- YOU ARE STRIVING to find a way-of-being in relationship to words . . . to images . . . that takes time to unfold!- At least, this is one way to introduce Whitman Illuminated to students. The tortuous path of some spreads requires one to turn the book, round and round, even upside down, in order to read it.

• Publisher: University of Iowa,University of Iowa, Department of English
• Subject: Aging / Energy / Hurston, Zora Neale (1891-1960) / Reading