Love the Earth
and the Sun
and the Animals.
Despise riches,
Give Alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid & crazy,
Devote your income & labor to others,
Hate tyrants, argue not concerning god,
Have patience & indulgence toward people,
Take off your hat to nothing known
or unknown or to any man
or number of men,
Go freely with powerful uneducated persons
and with the young
and with mothers of families,
Read these leaves in the open air
every season of every year of your life,
Reexamine all that you have been told at school
or church or in any book,
Dismiss whatever insults your very own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem
and have the richest fluency not only in its words
but in the silent lines of the lips & face
and between the lashes of your eyes
and in every motion & joint of your body…
~Walt Whitman