O Me! O Life!

by chuckofish

Greetings from the land of Still Recovering from that same virus/whatever that got me down last November. Ugh. Nevertheless, I started the slow process of cleaning my empty nest.

Clearly this was a bad idea, since in the process of doing this, I broke the glass tabletop in my Florida Room.

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

  Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass 1892)