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“I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.” — Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass) I was walking through the woods on a recent night, down the long gravel drive connecting BIOM to the tree-lined road that loops around Agate Point, on the north end of Bainbridge Island. It had been raining hard and regular for about a week; the end of winter’s drought ... wet woods ... drenched in starlight ... feeling the springing energy of Maple and Salmonberry, Cedar, and Elderberry, Alder and Huckleberry—pulsing in the night. On the way ...  back to BIOM as the path dipped down, a familiar sound, too long unheard, bubbled into the quiet night: water ... intending ...  tumbling ... over windfall and rock ... flowing again ...  full and fresh ... as it was ...  when I passed through on my way to the road ... then unnoticed ... I was distracted ... by mundane dreams and excited thoughts ... as I was being ... refreshed ... by wet woods. Now ... senses in sync ...  forest sounds ... a surge of anticipation, quickened my step ... like going to meet a seldom seen friend, or the one from whom you’ve been apart for several hours ... in an instant ...I was another bather — rock, tree, me — in streaming ions generated by the drought-quenching draught as it percolated into the openness of Puget Sound. I Sing the Body Electric Standing ... feeling ... rooted in the moment ... a voiceless voice silently spoke ... “I sing the body electric.” Sighing with praise as the poet’s words — symbols of inexpressible experience — told me what they told him in the time of Lincoln: “I sing the body electric” ... as the ”Chi” around me, merged with the energy that is me ... feeling it begin to spiral ... head to toe ... shoulders to finger ... hips to toes ... spontaneously ... my body began to dance ... the dance of Tai Chi ... flowing ... through vernal night air ... into the openness of pregnant sound. Singing Together “I sing the body electric,” Standing in moving stillness “The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,” Surrounded by infinite pulses of energy “They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,” Pressing firmly against me: Water, Air, Earth, and Wood “And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.” Fire ... stoked by cooling breath. Related Poets Gary Snyder Robinson Jeffers Poems http://www.biom.net/index.php/584/