Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.
The earth, that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
I know they are very well where they are;
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go;
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;
I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)
I believe you are not all that is here;
I believe that much unseen is also here."
- Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road," Leaves of Grass, 1890.
Ways of Walking: Quotes, Poems, Sayings
Hiking in Death Valley, California, 1988
I wish I could be do the same very soon.
ReplyDeleteToday, 12/1, I was looking at a map of Nevada, showing U.S. Interstate 80 from Reno to Winnemucca, Nevada, and the intersection in Winnemucca with U.S. 95 North to Burns. U.S. 395 from Burns to Pendleton, Oregon at I84. Maybe doable for us in the Spring of 2014. All east of the Cascades in high desert environments in Nevada and Oregon.
ReplyDelete