I Have Tried to Treat the World With Kindness--a poem

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter… ©

I usually start the day by staring into the fire, or out the window at the snow, and thinking a poem. Sometimes I write it down. I don’t rewrite. It is just the raw musings in the day’s first light, or, more often, its last darkness. I’m reluctant to inflict bad poetry on you, but if you have come here to see if there is something new to read, well, at least, there is something new…

I have tried to treat

the world with kindness,

so that it should not grieve

unduly when I pass.

I have tried to walk softly

on the earth,

cruel and indifferent

as it is, uncaring

if I live or die,

born in darkness

and feeding on the light,

as it has always been,

Original Sin, as the thinkers

name it, capitalized,

to be sure we understand.

Why should I walk softly

or caress with kindness

this world, so prodigal

with its disdain for me,

and you?

But I have tried to treat

the world with kindness.

Do not grieve, unduly,

when I pass…

John Robert McFarland

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

The “place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where life is defined by winter even in the summer! [This phrase is explained in the post for March 20, 2014.]

I have also started an author blog, about writing, in preparation for the publication, by Black Opal Books, of my novel, VETS, in 2015. http://johnrobertmcfarland-author.blogspot.com/

I tweet as yooper1721.