Sometimes when I write, I take a lot of words to reach what I want to say. That’s okay … at least I express what’s true for me, rather than simply being in the neighbourhood.

I admire people who can get to the spiritual point in just a few seconds, people who can touch me deeply in an instant.

Take my friend, Walt, for instance. Walt Whitman was an American poet and journalist living in the 1800s. He was a free spirit, licking his lips in a sensual explosion of life.

Here are seven words:

We were together … I forget the rest

O my God. Waydago, Walt. You nailed it

Please let those words wash over you. I could wax poetic about “the meaning” but no thanks. Your spirit will respond.

Long ago, some forgotten human being of my past gave me nourishment for the rest of my life with only two words:

Welcome everything

Well, my unknown benefactor, you gave me an immense gift

***

And now back to Walt. Let these gems seep inside:

Re-examine all that you have been told … dismiss that which insults your soul

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes

What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life

Your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body

***

Okay, Walt, answer me this:

Why were you born in 1819 and me in 1949?

How come you’re dead and I’m old?

I would have loved to know you