The Midnight Poetry


of Maggie E. Estes

From A Circle of Friends....

 

I have a new friend and I want to share his work as he is sharing mine. This page is dedicated to hardworking authors everywhere!

Jerry M. White is from Marietta,Georgia and in his own words:

                                                                                      

 Life is filled with memorable moments of victory, defeat, euphoria, calamity, great success or great failure. Many express these moments in a meaningful way to help others avoid the harm, or accentuate the blessings, which our own moments have caused in our lives. We are all connected, if not physically or emotionally, then certainly spiritually through the deeper resonance of life’s events. We all have moments. What you are holding are the moments of an only son of an only son from the Deep South. These are the moments lived by a journalist of great and abiding Christian faith, living life in an ever-expanding secular world. These are the moments lived by a father of five from an extended family home now living in a world becoming void of family at all. These are moments recorded in the storm of life we all hope to not only survive but make our own stamp upon. These are the first poems of a collection of poems compiled over time. My name is Jerry M. White and these are Moments of Mine

The following is from Jerry's book and I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do;

Presidential inaugural addresses through our nation’s history are filled with both rhetorical and literal calls to courageous action in times of need. They are filled with motivational language that will inspire us to act in an uncommon way. They are filled with calls to be fearless.

 The most memorable demonstration of calls to be fearless happened on March 4th, 1933, during the first inaugural address of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the peak of the Great Depression he called out to the nation “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” These powerful words to the American people led FDR to three more inaugural addresses in the next three Presidential elections. These powerful words gave the people hope in a time when, as FDR said a little later in his address, “Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.”

 Another inaugural address where fear was called out as fruitless happened 27 years later. The cold war was raging throughout the world when on Friday, January 20th, 1961; John F. Kennedy eloquently stated his case to the world. “…Let the word go forth form this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” These words ring clear today as they did that snow filled day in 1961.

 New enemies have arisen over the past few years and only by setting fear aside will we as a people be victorious as our past generations were victorious over theirs. My hope is you find something in the next poem that will encourage effort, involvement and a genuine interest doing something.

This could be your call to action.

 

                                                                                                          Fear!

 

Fear is a force

We must overcome

We must face it with courage

Or what we fear we’ll become

 

Do we fear what lies

Past out outstretched heart?

If that is our fear

Then we will never start

 

Do we fear the lies

Behind unopened doors?

If that is our fear

Then we open no more

 

Do we fear the cost

Of true relationships?

If that is our fear

There will be no new friendships

 

Do we fear we will fail

In the things we do?

If that is our fear

Then our trying is through

 

But fear is our friend

When with courage we view

What we fear in the end

Is having done nothing new

 

1/05/01

JMW

 

 

 

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