Dialogues with Walt Whitman for the New American Millennium:
A New Song of These United States
by
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Dialogues with Walt Whitman is based on a dream which Michael Sweda had while sleeping in Georgetown Hospital on the eve of September 11, 2001, while caring for his dying mother-in-law. Whitman, once wrote,
“See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that,
Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that.
My rendezvous is appointed, it is certain,
The Lord will be there and wait till I come on perfect terms,
The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be there”
Michael Sweda replies to Whitman by writing
Your terms are not mine.
Again, awake, into the deepest blackness of earth’s night do I work, Your living servant,
Your Camerado, far from perfect, flawed in countless ways.
Flaws in abeyance,
I set my pen forward on this journey,
In your name, in the name of soldiers valiant,
And in the name of the old cause and nation gallant.
Chanting again, and again, and again, Invoking the swirling muses,
Standing under the night sky vibrant with infinite galaxies,
Under distant, true, noble, eternal light and influence as my guides
Come, be swept away by Michael Sweda and Walt Whitman’s inspirational poetry which honors all America, from busy Long Island, birthplace of Whitman, to Pacific-gazing and bridge-blazoned San Francisco, to the languorous Caribbean “Virgin Saints,” St Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, current home of Whitman’s Camerado, Michael Sweda.
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About the Book
Walt Whitman, America’s eternal and greatest poet, returns on the eve of September 11, 2001, to pay a visit to his chosen Camerado, Michael Sweda, in order to inspire the completion of a great American work to complement his Leaves of Grass and to honor America, its people, and the military service members. Michael Sweda delivers with haunting and stunning poetry that recalls that of Whitman and extends Whitman’s great poetic vision for a new time and millennium—our time, this time. For anyone who loves America or an American service member, Dialogues with Walt Whitman for the New American Millennium is a must read. Prepare to be swept away and awed with the poetry of Michael Sweda, who honors the tradition of Walt Whitman and who brings Whitman to a new, higher level, just as Whitman envisioned during his lifetime.
About the Author
Michael Sweda is a novelist, poet, forensic psychologist, clinical psychologist, and educator. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. As a forensic psychologist, he has the distinction of having founded, directed, and developed for the US Army at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (subsequently the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) the first and still only postdoctoral training program in forensic psychology that is accredited by the American Psychological Association. Early in his career he was a psychology intern and forensic psychology resident at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the first federal mental health hospital, which was originally chartered to serve the citizens of the District of Columbia, soldiers of the US Army, and sailors of the US Navy. Dr. Sweda also has the distinction of working on a series of major cases involving vulnerable populations, out of which the FBI Innocent Images program was founded, after which the US National Sex Offender Public Website was named, and the case which initiated National Missing Children’s Day. He has been a resident of Camp Springs, MD, for twenty-five years and is in the process of moving to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, with his wife of thirty years, Mercedes. He is currently working on his second novel, Unlawful Command Influence.