your very flesh shall be a great poem

.

.

This is what you shall do; 
Love the earth and sun and the animals, 
despise riches, 
give alms to every one 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
 from the preface of Leaves of Grass