#7
I love that poetry can often show us a side of someone we might not see otherwise. Those who are in the public eye have their personality reduced to sound bytes and memorable phrases. There have been many world leaders that wrote poetry, but you rarely hear about them. It was the title poem of “Always a Reckoning” by former President Jimmy Carter that caught my eye one day. It is an ominous title that had a clear biblical feel to it.
Inside I found soft, tender poems, that seem to speak to the man who builds houses for the poor, more than a former commander-in-chief. They are about his life, a child being raised on a farm, and manage to capture emotions that are relatable to us all, even those who grew up in very different circumstances.
Try to put your politics aside and listen to the man behind the words. There is always a reckoning, for all of us, in everything we do. I find that notion to be both comforting and worrisome, in a very deep place in my soul.
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Always a Reckoning
There always seemed to be a need
for reckoning in early days.
What came in equaled what went out
like oscillating ocean waves.
On the farm, our wages matched
the work we did in woods and fields,
how many acres plowed and hoed,
how much syrup was distilled,
how many pounds of cotton picked,
how much cordwood cut and stacked.
All things had to balance out.
I had a pony then that lacked
a way to work and pay her way,
except that every year or two
Lady had a colt we sold,
but still for less than what was due
to buy fodder, hay, and corn
she ate at times she couldn’t be
on pasture.
Neither feed nor colts
meant all that much that I could see,
but still there was a thing about
a creature staying on our place
that none of us could eat or plow,
did not give eggs, or even chase
a fox or rabbit, that was sure
to rile my father.
We all knew
that Lady’s giving me a ride
paid some on her debt, lieu
of other ways–but there would be
some times I didn’t get around
to riding in my off-work hours.
And I was sure, when Daddy frowned
at some mistake I might’ve made, he
would be asking when he could,
“How long sinc you rode Lady?”
hypotheticlee speaking 