I am a keeper of flocks.

I am a keeper of flocks.
The flocks are my thoughts
and all my thoughts are sensations.
I think with my eyes and my ears,
and with my hands and my feet,
and with my nose and my mouth.

For to consider a flower is to both see it and smell it
and to eat of fruit is to understand its meaning.

So when the sun is at its warmest
and I feel guilty for embracing it,
and stretch out, supine, on the grassy earth,
and close my sun drenched eyes,
I view my entire body lying firmly on reality,
I know the truth, and am happy.

— Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa)

Translated by Martin D'Evelin for