“This is what you shall do: love the earth
and the sun and the animals, despise riches,
give alms to everyone that asks, stand up
for the stupid and crazy, devote your income
and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not
concerning God, have patience and indulgence
toward the 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 the mothers of families, read these
leaves in the open air every season of
every year of your life, re-examine all you
have been told at school or church or in
any book, dismiss whatever insults your 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 its lips
and face and between the lashes of your eyes
and in every motion and joint of your body.”
Walt Whitman.
Islander.
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