Let the world
have its way with you,
luminous as it is with mystery
and pain — graced as it is
with the ordinary.

In a gentle way you can shake the world.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

I allow the world to live as it chooses, and I allow me to live as I choose.

Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose.

I loafe and invite my soul.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

32. I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.
They do not make me sick discussiong their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

52. The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.

Oh, I could let the world go by,
Its loud new wonders and its wars,
BUt how will I give up the sky
When winter dusk is set with stars?

And I could let the cities go,
Their changing customs and their creeds,–
In silver on the jewel-weeds!

I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.

Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views - then the world will be governed.

Make gentle the life of this world.

The world belongs to those who let go.

Give me but that, and let the world rub; there I'll stick.

Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in its life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows.