Live Oak With Moss (Walt Whitman, illustrated by Brian Selznick)

 

I picked this up because I love everything Brian Selznick does. I really don't know much about Walt Whitman and I'm really not good at poetry...but this book is beautiful. The story of his poem is fascinating. I can't imagine what drives someone to play with words to that extent until they get it to exactly what they want. It's a special kind of brilliance. Apparently, he wrote this, then cut it up and hid it amongst other poetry....and then someone who studies Walt Whitman uncovered it! Amazing!

Brian Selznick tells the story of how he got to know Maurice Sendak (imagine?!) The book is dedicated to Maurice Sendak. He was originally asked to illustrate the poem but felt like poems didn't need illustrations. I hope Brian Selznick will illustrate more famous poems. It helped me  increase my understanding, that's for sure! I'm sure there are more people like me out there who need a little help with their poetry comprehension. 

Goodreads says:

As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman wrote twelve poems in a small handmade book he entitled “Live Oak, With Moss.” The poems were intensely private reflections on his attraction to and affection for other men. They were also Whitman’s most adventurous explorations of the theme of same-sex love, composed decades before the word “homosexual” came into use. This revolutionary, extraordinarily beautiful and passionate cluster of poems was never published by Whitman and has remained unknown to the general public—until now. New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Award–winning illustrator Brian Selznick offers a provocative visual narrative of “Live Oak, With Moss,” and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener reconstructs the story of the poetic cluster’s creation and destruction. Walt Whitman’s reassembled, reinterpreted Live Oak, With Moss serves as a source of inspiration and a cause for celebration.