There Was a Child Went Forth

There was a child went forth every day;

And the first object he looked upon, that object he became;

And that object became a part of him for the day, or a certain part of the

day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child,

And grass, and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover,

and the song of the phoebe-bird,

And the third month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the

mare's foal, and the cow's calf,

And the noisy brood of the barnyard, or by the mire of the pond-side,

And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there--and the

beautiful curious liquid,

And the water plants with their graceful flat heads-all became part of him.

His own parents,

He that had fathered him, and she that had conceived him in her womb,

and birthed him,

They gave this child more of themselves than that;

They gave him afterward every day--they became part of him.

Walt Whitman

(Photos courtesy of Kristen)