"Song of Myself" excerpt

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the

     beginning and the end,

But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

There was never any more inception than there is now,

Nor any more youth or age than there is now,

And will never be any more perfection than there is now,

Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

Urge and urge and urge,

Always the procreant urge of the world.

Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always

     substance and increase, always sex,

Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed

     of life.

Photos by Maud Chalard.
Words by Walt Whitman.