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A Noiseless Patient Spider

Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Why I chose this poem: 

I read this poem when I was a young child, maybe around age 12. It was a time when I was trying to figure out who I was going to be, what path I would take in my life. I was in foster care and I got passed along to several families, never really feeling connected to any thing.  This poem spoke to me then. It made me feel hopeful that someday I, too, would find my anchor.

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