“Inner Strength” by Sharon Cummings
I never feared men
a machismo thing born on
unkind city streets
but age and infirmity
shrivels all vanity
(originally posted January 2014)
Bravery
All posts tagged Bravery
“The Wall of Daydreaming and Man’s Inhumanity to Man” – Chicago Street Art
irrational valor
a selflessness
sworn of an oath
to protect and defend
turn aside mortal peril
walk into the fire
stand into the bullets
take illness in hand
a state less of the
mind than the heart
it’s a calling
the voice of an
impulse to serve
a devotion to duty
a knowledge that
one’s fellow man
needs protection
no threat
the more grave
than he is to himself
False Front Building by Peter B Pearman
strawman as strongman
a false-front illusion
for scaring the world
to distract it from noticing
how much in truth
it scares hell out of him
“Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad” by Paul Collins
secret safe-houses
hid in plain sight
righteous bravery
tracing invisible
networks of yearning
defiantly smuggling
flesh and blood
cargoes of freedom
a life and death drama
heroic and noble
both black and white
consciences adamant
in their pursuit of
complete abolition
uncompromised ethics
the impetus driving
beyond scathing words
to engage mortal action
unshakeable warriors
smashing at shackles
redeeming the
uttermost shame of
imperfect utopia
***************
(inspired by the upcoming telecast of a new production of “Roots”)
“Snakes Abstract”
Digital Art by mickyd600
From picstopin.com
brave beyond reason
Kipling’s unlikely hero
let loose his children
among halls of government
see how the snakes flee the nest
“Reticence”
Artwork by Michael Divine
From tenthousandvisions.com
like a box in a box in a box
hides the continent kernel of self
the embarrassing essence
of genuine judgments
perceptions uniquely obtained
from the shape of the world
by the lights of legitimate eyes
purely personal inklings of when
how and why did we come to exist
all the deeply internal eccentric
held thoughts and ideas never
shared never given communion
from fear of rejection or worse
fear of falling ignored through
fat cracks of ambivalence
confidence comes from acceptance
acceptance from joining the throng
fully naked of all but one’s honesty
honesty tendered with bravery
bravery being the purview of heroes
and heroes don’t hide their own hearts
like a box in a box in a box
“Beowulf Wrestles with Grendel”
Illustration by Lynd Ward
From wikipedia.org
old monsters measure
the distance of fear
the heroic of heart
can be shaken in time
courage eaten by evil
who stridently bays
in a thundering voice
the poetic expression
of epithet sagas replete
with the terrors of
conscience projected
across generations in
oral tradition by firelight
found on low fens or
the high glacial ridges
of centuries marked by
the long lasting night
before medieval dawn
here did descendants
of Cain the behemoth
the ogre the firedrake
occupy mists of the mind
trampling men in their
naked mortality only
to find that one day
from their multitude
prey would arise a son
trembling with sword
standing taller than fear
invested by poets with
bravery spanning the
whole of his race all
the nations who yearned
to be other than victims
to tolerate no more of
monsters no longer
resigned to oppression
and thus did the singers
of sagas convey how
long suffered humanity
found its redemption
at hands of one man
standing taller than fear
