As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman composed a sequence of twelve poems and compiled them in a small handmade book he entitled Live Oak, With Moss—but never exactly published them. The verses describe an unhappy love affair with an unnamed man and are considered among the most adventurous and homoerotic work he ever wrote. Whitman pulled the twelve pieces apart in order to obliterate the narrative and rearranged them into other sections of “Calamus Lovers” section in Leaves of Grass. The original sequence was only restored by scholars in recent years, and has now been published with an essay by Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener and illustrated by Caldecott Award–winner Brian Selznick.

On the occasion of Whitman’s bicentennial, Karbiener and Selznick speak about the original collection and make the case for it as a source of inspiration and cause for celebration. They are joined in conversation by Queens-based poet, Paolo Javier.