Me Imperturbe
By Walt Whitman
Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
Master of all, or mistress of all - aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
Imbued as they - passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought;
Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary - all these subordinate,
(I am eternally equal with the best - I am not subordinate;)
Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
A river man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life in These States, or of the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada,
Me, wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies!
O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.