Of all the nations
the United States with veins full of poetical stuff
most need poets —
and will doubtless have the greatest
and use them the greatest.

Of all mankind the great poet is the equitable man.
Not in him but off from him things are
grotesque or eccentric or fail of their sanity.
Nothing out of its place is good,
and nothing in its place is bad.
He bestows on every object or quality
its fit proportions neither more or less.
He is the arbiter of the diverse and
he is the key.

-excerpt Leaves of Grass Introduction by Walt Whitman P. XXIII published 1855

---

One hundred and sixty seven years after the publication of these words, how are we doing?

Our response to gun violence, the upsurge of mass murder in our towns and cities, the expression of empathy by the President, or proclamations of strength by mayors and police chiefs as they gaze stoically into the TV camera, suggest that we have lost our way, sinking into the morass of confusion about what matters most, incapacitated…  Do we have “a clue” about the fit proportion of anything?  It does not seem so.

We did not take to heart Whitman’s advice.

---

As for the song, the tune that will pull us through…  This one works.  Black Velvet by Allanah Myles.  She won a Grammy in 1991 for this one.  How easily we forget, and to be honest, deny the darkness that is the backdrop for the white light (lightning) of inspiration that possesses one when Elvis sings.  Who would argue this feeling of ecstasy is none other than “religion?”  Music when it is right, — binds together the fragments of our lives.  “Religion” a term derived from Latin:  re-ligare, means to bind together.

Black Velvet

By Alannah Myles

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high
Mama’s dancin’ with baby on her shoulder
The sun is settin’ like molasses in the sky
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave
White lightning, bound to drive you wild
Mama’s baby’s in the heart of every school girl
“Love me tender” leaves ’em cryin’ in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Every word of every song that he sang was for you
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could
You do?

Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please
If you please, if you please, if you please

Lyrics by David Michael Tyson, Christopher Ward