Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes

By Walt Whitman

1819-1892

Not heat flames up and consumes,
Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
Not the air delicious and dry, the air of ripe summer, bears lightly
along white down-balls of myriads of seeds,
Waited, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may;
Not these, O none of these more than the flames of me, consuming,
burning for his love whom I love,
O none more than I hurrying in and out;
Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same,
O nor down-balls nor perfumes, nor the high rain-emitting clouds,
are borne through the open air,
Any more than my soul is borne through the open air,
Wafted in all directions O love, for friendship, for you.

DayPoems Poem No. 1929
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1929.html">Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes by Walt Whitman</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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