When I’m on a vacation, be it a month-long backpacking trip or weekend jaunt, each day I plan to leave a section of Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road. I might leave it in a B&B guestbook, tuck a note behind a hotel painting or write it on a dollar bill I spend at a hot dog stand. In any case, I’ll be tracking where I leave the poem here. I call it The Open Road Project. Click on the stanzas below to find out where they’ve been left and track the poem’s progress here.
I left the twenty-second section of the poem on Shawn’s parents’ Christmas tree, behind an ornament tag I saved from one of the gifts I opened on Christmas day. I felt so lucky to be celebrating with such wonderful people and feel so loved and welcomed. And that’s not even mentioning the amazing gifts I received from my mom, sister, aunt & uncle, mom’s best friend, godmother, Shawn, Shawn’s family and others. I know the true spirit of Christmas isn’t about presents, but they certainly do make things fun.
I am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness.
Here’s where the poem has been so far:
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