season

'this is what you shall do:

love the earth & the sun & the animals,

despise riches,

give alms to every one that asks,

stand up for the stupid and crazy,

devote your income & labor to others,

hate tyrants,

argue not concerning God,

have patience & indulgence toward the people,

take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or any man or number of men,

go freely with powerful uneducated persons & with the young & 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 & have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips & face & between the lashes of your eyes & in every motion and joint of your body...'

-walt whitman