“A war footing is a matter of standing on one leg on a ledge of the Grand Canyon
in a ruthless wind imagining wings and immortality being superseded by wisdom.”
………………………………………………………………………………………… —Adrian Barbarino
As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado
As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado,
The confession I made I resume, what I said to you
…….. in the open air I resume:
I know I am restless, and make others so;
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws,
…….. to unsettle them;
I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could
…….. ever have been had all accepted me;
I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions,
…….. majorities, nor ridicule;
And the threat of what is call’d hell is little or nothing to me;
And the lure of what is call’d heaven is little or nothing to me;
Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me,
…….. and still urge you, without the least idea what is our
…….. destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly
…….. quell’d and defeated.
Walt Whitman
from Leaves of Grass