deepundergroundpoetry.com

How To Live

Be uncomfortable.

Eat spicy foods; walk around with your eyes closed.

Stumble down unfamiliar roads without a real destination,
never let yourself stop.

Try to find people cut from your same cloth,
Don�t be afraid to mix patterns.

Feel blood in your veins and air in your lungs,
Even if you don�t always feel alive.

Draw strangers on the bus,
miss your stop and just keep riding until you�re forced off.

Walk barefoot in nature,
Let her naturally jagged edges slice the soles of your feet.

Talk to yourself all the time;
Climb trees while looking down,
Be afraid to fall.

Listen to music you don�t know the words to;
Scream in the middle of the night.

Paint directly onto the canvas,
never draw a sketch.

Write only in pen,
Let your mistakes sit as ugly black splotches.

Pick a random book off the shelf;
Don�t read the same book twice.

Compliment strangers in public;
Never smile back.

Walk too fast,
Think too fast,
Talk too fast,
Eat too fast,
And love too slow.

Stretch the skin on your face in the mirror,
Don�t recognize yourself.

Jump off high ledges,
Listen to your knees creak.

Think about the future constantly,
Try and live in the moment.

Keep receipts and maps and notes,
Tape the world's remnants to your wall,
So you don�t forget it�s all around you.

Never retake a photo,
Accept the blurry flaws.

Let yourself suffer,
Let yourself feel sad,
Let yourself feel.

Accept the world around you as it is,
Don�t wallow on how you wish it would be.

Hope for more time,

Don�t expect it.