I’ve been lax and including first paragraphs instead of limiting myself to first lines. But back to that for today, with the great opening of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

“I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

A poem that also includes a line I’ve always loved: “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars…”