244. I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing

Suleika Jaouad, The Eternal Banyan Tree (2022)

“But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not”

I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,

All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,

Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,

And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,

But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,

And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,

And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,

It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,

(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)

Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;

For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,

Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,

I know very well I could not.

- “I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing” by Walt Whitman

Prompt

Write about where you fall on the spectrum of solitary to surrounded. Do you feel disconnected, in need of more human contact? Do you feel overwhelmed by people and yearn for more solitude? Has your relationship to being in the company of others changed over the years? Or have you just become more attuned to your own needs? If not, how might you?