O Captain! My Captain!

today i spent a wondrous afternoon at walt whitman's birthplace...thinking about the "leaves of grass" as i watched leaves falling on a cold but glorious fall day...but here is the irony...for twenty years i lived about two miles from the place...passed it all the time...wrote, edited and agonized over my poems at a panera across the road...moved to nassau county two years ago...entered some poems in a contest sponsored by the nassau county poet laureate society...didn't win but had one published in their brand new anthology...which was launched today...and there i was in whitman's house...an afternoon bursting with poems...funny and poignant...and inspiring...trying to listen as my heart raced waiting to hear my name...and suddenly it was my turn...and damn, it felt good...the best in life is often that minute or two when it all comes together...we often forget that and don't appreciate that moment...because just as quickly the mundane and ordinary will return...and it did...as i kicked the fallen leaves under my heels on the path when i left i closed my eyes...and breathed deep...but it wasn't the glory of whitman's leaves i smelled...but the aroma of the laundromat across the road...coffee from dunkin next door...and life returns...o captain...it does