' A Great Poem '...

This is what you should do:

love the earth and 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 ...

re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,

dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.


-Walt Whitman