25 February 2014

Words to live by....

This arrived in my email box this morning from the lovely Joe Riley at Panhala.

Of course, it takes a poet to find the words to express how we should live...

(Photo copyright Panhala)

This is what you should do:
Love the earth and sun and animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people...
re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
dismiss what insults your very soul,
and your flesh shall become a great poem.

~ Walt Whitman ~

(Excerpt from Preface to 1855 edition, Leaves of Grass)


4 comments:

  1. I like watching KIKKI emerge from sleep in her basket in the mornings hee hee xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing!

    Inspiring words - but how should we combine hating tyrants and having patience and indulgence toward people - or are tyrants considered not to be people?

    ReplyDelete
  3. .. I love the mist over the water - it looks otherworldly...

    ReplyDelete
  4. OH! Just perfect. Gosh, what a way with words old Walt had. What a creed to live by! Re the tyrants thing, I took that to mean we should hate the tyrany but not necessarily the person, along the lines of hate the sin but not the sinner? (See, I may be an atheist but a few years of Sunday school did leave me with some information and concepts I value!)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment - I really appreciate it!
It's good to know I'm not alone :)