Throughout the trek that is reading “I celebrate myself”, its themes kept reminding me of the short story “The Egg” by Andy Weir.
https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
Something something “I am the universe and I am everyone and everything, and everyone and everything is me, and consciousness and existence are both plural and ultimately singular, and someday I (and by I, I mean everyone) will reach apotheosis…” I would articulate my thoughts on the connection between these two works more, but I am very tired.
Also… what drugs was Walt Whitman taking in 1855???? I have never read a poem that is simultaneously so horny and so esoteric.
Almost included Allen Ginsberg’s “Footnote to Howl” in my beat-poet-post because of how much it doubled down on the horny-esotericism Whitman built out. I mean, “The bum’s as holy as the seraphim!” is a perfect line of poetry.
Less related but feels spiritually connected, Sawako Nakayasu’s texture notes on oysters.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54163/footnote-to-howl
https://fenceportal.org/two-poems-2/