The Philanthropist
©2012 Susan Noyes Anderson (poem only)
Unflinching resolution is
a phrase that always conjures you.
Your war cry is “Snap out of it.”
And “Seize the day” is your world view.
You dabble in philanthropy,
dispensing it with heavy hand,
then find the lack of gratitude
quite difficult to understand.
Sometimes you give for goodness’ sake.
Sometimes your motives aren’t so pure.
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you break
them. Pfft. Only the strong endure.
True charity empowers, not impairs…ennobles, not enables.
∞§∞
Philanthropy is almost the only virtue that is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.
Nay, it is overrated; and it is our selfishness which overrates it.” – Thoreau
