“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 (1819-1892) ~ Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855

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Do you think the poetry of poets such as Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson is outdated, or are the concepts classic, and therefore never go out of style? They are the basics of life, and speak to the fundamental principles that humanity aspires to, over and over again.

Whitman speaks here (in a very eloquent way) of love, compassion, connectedness, humility, courage, determination, discernment, independence of thought, knowing and being true to one’s self.

If these principles have gone “out of style” at the moment, perhaps it’s time to bring them back…

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More inspirational quotes by Walt Whitman:

“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”

“I am large, I contain multitudes”

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.”

“Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”

“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering… these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.”

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Life Is a Gift (Susan L Hart)

It’s a blue-sky day,
one of those
beauteous blue-full,
joyously jocular,
splendidly splashy,
exceptional days –
I long to shout
LIFE IS A GIFT
in unmistakable
letters across the
blue shiny yonder,
to imprint them
indelibly on your
mind, so you’ll –

Remember when
the dark clouds roll
in, on a day when
life feels pissy and
oh so problematic,
to take a deep breath,
and close your eyes,
and gently pull the
gray gloom aside,
to see those big
oh so true words
I etched on blue
for you, so that
you’d never forget –

Life is a gift.

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Life is a Gift © Susan L Hart 2024 / Is an excerpt from my ebook Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life.

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