Kundalini Splendor

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Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Walt Whitman––from Preface to Leaves of Grass 



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 or families,
re-examine 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....


~ Walt Whitman––from the Preface to Leaves of Grass

What would happen if the world followed these simple precepts?
Whitman was, of course, gay, a fact that is generally omitted from the schoolbooks and reprints of his work.  He was also kind, loving, generous, and immensely talented.  He broke the rules for poetry and the result was a totally independent voice in American literature.
Emerson first hailed him as a new and exciting poet, but later threw his books into the fire when he discovered that some contained homosexual content.
During the Civil War, he spent his time visiting the wounded in the Union hospitals, and continued his visits even after the war.


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