“The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account, That of the male is perfect and of the female is perfect”
—Walt Whitman, I Sing the Body Electric
Luis Alberto Ambroggio, proud of who he is, has been, can be, could be
Pens a poem of praise, of pride, of power.
Ambroggio’s poem We are all Whitman: #2: Song Of/ To/ My/ Your/ Self follows the form of Whitman’s I Sing the Body Electric, in rhythm, in tone, lack of breath,
It is but a short rendition of Whitman, calling praise to body, calling love to the human form,
Pride in oneself, and in this case, the Self is, “Hispanic, Latin, blond, black, olive-skinned, native and immigrant” (Ambroggio ll.1-2).
Whitman talks of the form of body, the role it plays,
its performance in everydayness,
and Ambroggio does much of the same in the same jarring jolt that electricity has.
Aside from content, one might think the poems to be one in the same because of this jolt of life that is injected in reading each poem,
the continuous stream of enumeration, comma after comma, listing on and on about form and performance.
The works themselves lend a hand in power. The lists go on,
Ambroggio list draws attention to the comma that requires emphasis, strength,
power to enunciate and repeat one after another like the Whitman piece, but a different subject matter,
but a similar message.
This is the pacing of power that these poems lend, but what of the form?
The Self in the poems both have, do not have form, a form that exists, yes, but unconventional, unafraid to be itself
to provide its message, its meaning, similar to the body, any
body whether it be the body Whitman or Ambroggio talk about, the body is its own unique Self,
whether that be a human body or a body of work in literature.
In their own unique way, Whitman and Ambroggio both list out what it is to be the self, and both poems are charged just like electricity.
The unstoppable stream of words creates thrill, so why is it so crazy to understand the singing of the human form as electric?
The rhythm and pacing of the work is not meant to be restrained or self-contained, the work is supposed to read electric.
—Joseph Rojas
Introduction to Poetry 