Slow Burn

🌳 Live Oak, with Moss by Walt Whitman, illustrated by Brian Selznick

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

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 and Whitman’s most adventurous explorations on the theme of same-sex love. This revolutionary, beautiful, and passionate cluster of poems was never published by Whitman during his lifetime and has remained mostly unknown to the general public- until now.

To read Brian Selznick write on how Maurice Sendak was offered to illustrate this, but passed away before he could and thus, Selznick illustrated this instead, really felt emotional to me. Sendak said that you can’t illustrate poetry, yet Selznick did a beautiful job enveloping the reader in the world of Walt Whitman and setting the scene for “Live Oak, with Moss”.

These poems were gripping, beautiful, and gave me a sense of melancholy at what is lost and never found. But they also gave me a sense of hope and joy reading about love and finding those you need and those who need you. What a gift. The Afterword by Karen Karbiener was really enlightening to give some background to when, where, and why Whitman wrote these poems.

Chapters: 3/5 Fandom: Richard Hammond’s Workshop (TV), Top Gear (UK) RPF, The Grand Tour (TV) RPF Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Richard Hammond/James May, Jeremy Clarkson/James May, James May/Sim Oakley Characters: Bleaberry, Kamala (Richard Hammond’s Workshop), Jamie (Richard Hammond’s Workshop), Les (Richard Hammond’s Workshop), Anthony Greenhouse (Richard Hammond’s Workshop) Additional Tags: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Angst, Divorce, Hallucinations, Old Men Being Bad At Feelings, Insomnia, Moving Out, Moving On, Embedded Image, Epic Friendship, Tough Love, Original Non-Binary Character - Freeform, Mild Offscreen Homophobia (past), Mild Offscreen Transphobia (past), Non-Graphic Violence, Fist Fights, Sharing a Bed Series: Part 8 of Disaster Hearts Summary: Oh sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

Chapters: 3/5 Fandom: Richard Hammond’s Workshop (TV), Top Gear (UK) RPF, The Grand Tour (TV) RPF Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Richard Hammond/James May, Jeremy Clarkson/James May, James May/Sim Oakley Characters: Bleaberry, Kamala (Richard Hammond’s Workshop), Jamie (Richard Hammond’s Workshop), Les (Richard Hammond’s Workshop), Anthony Greenhouse (Richard Hammond’s Workshop) Additional Tags: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Angst, Divorce, Hallucinations, Old Men Being Bad At Feelings, Insomnia, Moving Out, Moving On, Embedded Image, Epic Friendship, Tough Love, Original Non-Binary Character - Freeform, Mild Offscreen Homophobia (past), Mild Offscreen Transphobia (past), Non-Graphic Violence, Fist Fights, Sharing a Bed Series: Part 8 of Disaster Hearts Summary: Oh sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

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