Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

The Rainy Day team is on the road. We're taking a break from it all — work, bills, the slog. So, until we return, bronzed, rejuvenated and fighting fit, this news and opinion space will be filled with the works of those poets who have inspired us down through the years. Today, we're running with Walt Whitman.

The Runner

On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner;
He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs;
He is thinly clothed — he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists, and arms partially rais'd.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

For the aspiring marathon runner, this Whitman work is inspiring. Talking of Whitman and inspiration, here's an excerpt from A Supermarket in California, that great poetic tribute to Whitman by Allen Ginsberg.

A Supermarket in California

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! &#151: and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Why "enumerations" there? Well, many of Whitman's poems contain lists of details. That's why. And why Garcia Lorca? Simple. The Spanish poet wrote an Ode to Walt Whitman in his booklength sequence Poet in New York. The Walt Whitman Archive is an excellent resource, while this splendid site is a must for all Allen Ginsberg fans.