Out of the Crowd

I decided to watch our Sheryl Crow concert DVD this weekend. There was one song in particular that I wanted to hear - Riverwide. It is one of my favorites, and is one of her slower more obscure songs based on a Walt Whitman poem from Leaves of Grass. I have heard her mention this poem every time I've watched the DVD, but had never bothered to look it up. Over the summer, I had purchased a copy of Leaves of Grass, so decided it was time to read the actual poem. The peom is called, Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd.

I was immediately impacted by the message it conveyed. It speaks of how we are all smaller parts of a larger, more powerful whole. And of how we need to make the most of the connections we make with our fellow human beings, for as long, or as short as those connections or relationships may last. . .of how we need to truly value eachother as part of something bigger than ourselves. At least, that is what the poem says to me. Here it is. . .

Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,
Whispering "I love you, before long I die,
I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
For I fear'd I might afterward lose you."

Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe,
Return in peace to the ocean my love,
I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;
Be not impatient - a little space - know you I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.