Sharon Woods today...

Leaves of Grass

I heard this on Garrison Keillor's "Writers Almanac" yesterday and wanted to post it here today. I have always loved Walt Whitman but had forgotten about this 1855 edition that was edited out:

This is what you shall do
by Walt Whitman

"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."

http://www.writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Almost time to harvest my10 year old Echinacea