David Welch | + Follow Poet |
Rhyme | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

The Manly Virtues, Part I

It seems that there is no shortage
of blind fools in the world today,
wishing that masculinity
would die, or whither away.
As if it were a simple choice,
and not written into our cells,
not realizing that without us
their future would not go well.
It may not be fashionable,
but that makes in no less true,
we need to teach both young and old
the value of manly virtues.

Ambition is a giant one,
and the most misunderstood,
but when channeled productively
it does us all enormous good.
The machines of the modern world
were not ordered by government,
but came from ambitious minds,
after years of toil spent.
The male need to be number one
gave us planes, computers, and cars,
so we teach our boys to use it,
and it takes society far.

Courage may be the most well-known,
and by many is called the best,
essential in a life that seems
an endless series of tests.
And those who test us never fail
to intimidate and make threats,
courage is what makes a man say,
“That’s as far as you’re gonna get.”
When you wish to cower and flee,
when the bullets fly for real,
it’s courage that stiffens the spine,
and makes men into hardened steel.

Then there comes Tenacity,
perhaps the strongest of the lot,
dismissed as mere ‘stubbornness’
by the folks who have not sought
to push a dream until its end,
to keep fighting until you’ve won,
in this grinding world stubbornness
is how all great things are done.
Not through strength or connections,
but by an endless force of will,
tenacity is what men use
to summit this life’s steep hills...

CONCLUDES IN PART II.

Please Login to post a comment