Poem of the Week: A Million Universes

"I have said that the soul is not more than the body,

And I have said that the body is not more than the soul.

And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is,

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own

funeral drest in his shroud,

And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the

earth,

And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds

the learning of all times,

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following

it may become a hero,

And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd

universe,

And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool

and composed before a million universes.

-Walt Whitman in "Song of Myself" from "Leaves of Grass"