GIVING & RECEIVING

IF FROM TWO KINDS OF PLEASURE I WOULD CHOOSE
THE ONE BY WHICH I’D WIN, THE OTHER LOSE
THE HAPPINESS I FIND ON THIS OLD EARTH,
THRU DEEDS OF KINDNESS AND OF VIRTUOUS WORTH,
OR PASSING, GIVING JOY TO THOSE I KNOW,
AND TO THE HELPLESS, QUIET ALMS BESTOW,
I KNOW I’D RELISH NOT TEMPORARY GAIN
OR THE MULTITUDE’S APPLAUSE, BUT LIVING AIM
MY WORK BY ACTING IN THOSE PARTS
THAT WOULD ENGRAVE MY NAME IN HUMAN HEARTS
OF VARIOUS FORMS OF INDIGNATION YOU AND I
WILL FIND IN EVERY SOUL THAT PASSES BY,
THERE’S ONE, A LOWLY JEW OF GALILEE
USED, WHEN HE TOOK A WHIP TO FREE
THE TEMPLE FROM THE MONEY CHANGERS THERE.
THAT I LIKE BEST, FOR IT LAYS NAKED, BARE,
THE FRUITLESSNESS OF SELFISH, SORDID AIM,
AND DISAPPOINTMENT FOUND IN WORLDLY GAIN,
AND MAGNIFIES A THOUSAND FOLD
THE RIGHTEOUS WAY TO WORK FOR YOUNG AND OLD.
EACH HOUR, EACH DAY, EACH YEAR WE WIN OR LOSE
HAPPINESS AND PEACE OF MIND THE WAY WE CHOOSE;
EACH FLOWER AND BIRD, ALL CREATURES ON THIS EARTH
THAT HAVE IN THEM THE PRECIOUS JEWEL OF WORTH,
TELL US THAT, FINALLY, OUR REWARD
IS WORTH SO MUCH WE CAN’T AFFORD
WHEN YOUNG, NOT TO TRAIN THE WILL,
SO THAT THRU LIFE WE’LL CHOOSE THE RIGHT THING STILL
AND HAPPINESS THROUGHOUT THE PASSING HOURS
WILL BE WITH THEE AND THINE AND ALL THAT’S OURS

Written by a neighbor, the late Wallace H. Holmes