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| Sunset Victoria, British Columbia |
This is what you shall 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 -- go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young and with the mothers of families -- reexamine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and 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 our eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.
Walt Whitman, preface to Leaves of Grass
Every time I read this I am immediately reminded of Wendell Berry's poem What we need is here".
ReplyDeleteSome of the most beautifully strung together words in the English language.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful photo. It makes me think of Neruda's "Oda a unas flores amarillas".
ReplyDelete(from a long-time fan and follower of your blog, finally crawling out of the woodwork!)
Thank you. I'd forgotten this.
ReplyDeleteLovely.
ReplyDeleteEverything about this is breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, this morning.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you? You seem to be in a breathtaking place, literally and figuratively. I hope you'll share.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorely missing you.
ReplyDeleteNicely written. That photo is beautiful.
ReplyDelete