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Dave Eggers' The Wild Things is available for preorder, in regular hardcover and
limited-edition fur-covered.

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Whitman's Sampler: Killing the Father of Free Verse. - - - - (ALL LINES BY WALT WHITMAN.) - - - - BY DAPHNE GOTTLIEB - - - - O unspeakable passionate love ... I do not ask who you are, this is not important to me. Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose them. I ascend from the moon ... I ascend from the night. A tenor large and fresh as creation fills me. I shall look for loving crops from birth, life, death. No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death. I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love ... Who wishes to walk with me? Trippers and askers surround me, Jostling me through streets and public halls ... coming naked to me at night. Askers embody themselves in me, and I embody them. I fling out my fancies toward them. They were purified by death.  Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet there in the fragrant, silent night. I'll perfume the grave of him I love ...  No guard can shut me off, no law can prevent me.  Did it make you ache so leaving me?  The sea whisper'd me. My songs cease, I abandon them. No guard can shut me off, no law can prevent me. I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death. I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love. Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before ... there in the night. The myth of heaven indicates peace and night. Did it make you ache so leaving me?  She convulses me like the climax of love And the white skeletons of death, I saw them. And as to you, life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths: I am mad for it to be in contact with me. If I could now and always send the sunrise out of me, I too pass from the night ... Ever the bandage under my chin ... ever the tassels of death Hang your whole weight upon me ...  Askers embody themselves in me, and I embody them.  And the son holds the father with measureless love.  Who wishes to walk with me? My nights cease, I abandon them. I bequeath myself to the death to grow from the grass I love.     MORE SESTINAS

- - - - MAIN PAGE | ARCHIVES Memories of Amanda Davis Red dot denotes content that is new today. Black dot denotes newish content. McSWEENEY'S STORE SUBSCRIBE TO: McSWEENEY'S THE BELIEVER WHOLPHIN FUTURE McSWEENEY'S BOOKS THE AMANDA DAVIS HIGHWIRE FICTION AWARD INVITE A McSWEENEY'S AUTHOR TO SPEAK IN YOUR TOWN OR COLLEGE THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING McSWEENEY'S MONTHLY MAILING LIST BOOKSTORES WITH A McSWEENEY'S DISPLAY McSWEENEY'S-RELATED EVENTS AND VARIOUS TOUR DATES ORDER INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: FOR BOOKS FOR THE QUARTERLY FOR THE WEBSITE FOR WHOLPHIN McSWEENEY'S INTERNSHIPS CONTACT US - - - - LETTERS TO McSWEENEY'S LISTS McSWEENEY'S PREDICTS McSWEENEY'S RECOMMENDS NEW WHOLPHIN FILM DAN LIEBERT, VERBAL CARTOONIST TEDDY WAYNE'S UNPOPULAR PROVERBS REVIEWS OF NEW FOOD DISPATCHES FROM MANILA DISPATCHES FROM MOSCOW AND HERE'S THE KICKER: MIKE SACKS'S CONVERSATIONS WITH HUMOR WRITERS SARAH WALKER SHOWS YOU HOW DISPATCHES FROM AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER WHO IS TRYING TO GROW A MUSTACHE DISPATCHES FROM A HANGDOG BANKRUPT DISPATCHES FROM THE ANACOSTIA DISPATCHES FROM THE CAPITAL DISPATCHES FROM INDIA THE WINNER'S CIRCLE WITH ERIC FEEZELL BEN GREENMAN'S FAKE CELEBRITY MUSICALS SEAN MICHAELS LISTENS TO MUSIC IN MONTREAL SHORT IMAGINED MONOLOGUES KIDS' LETTERS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA STAINED TEETH: A COLUMN ABOUT WINE DISPATCHES FROM THE WINGS AT THE BALLET YOUR MONEY, YOUR JOB ... YOUR LIFE, WITH ALISON ROSEN KEVIN DOLGIN TELLS YOU ABOUT PLACES YOU SHOULD GO IN EUROPE LAWRENCE WESCHLER'S EVERYTHING THAT RISES: A BOOK OF CONVERGENCES THE CONVERGENCES CONTEST ABOUT THE CONVALESCENT ABOUT GOD SAYS NO ABOUT UNDERGROUND AMERICA ABOUT THANKS AND HAVE FUN RUNNING THE COUNTRY LETTERS FROM AN EARTH BALL TO, OR CONCERNING, SEAN HANNITY DISPATCHES FROM ADJUNCT FACULTY AT A LARGE STATE UNIVERSITY E-MAILS SENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FLAG-FOOTBALL TEAM ADVICE FROM A PERSON WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG CORRESPONDENCES INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTERESTING OR UNUSUAL JOBS FLIP: A COLUMN ABOUT SKATEBOARDING OPEN LETTERS TO PEOPLE OR ENTITIES WHO ARE UNLIKELY TO RESPOND DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN MICHAEL IAN BLACK IS A VERY FAMOUS CELEBRITY DAN KENNEDY SOLVES YOUR PROBLEMS WITH PAPER STEPHEN ELLIOTT'S POKER REPORT - - - - ADDITIONAL MATERIAL