Just when I think good is holding its own,
Life goes and throws the bad a bone.
Rangy and starving, he wolfs it down,
And the fear and the panic gather around.
"There must be balance," he says to me,
And laughs at my rage against the machine.
"You think the good one is better than me,
But there cannot be good without bad, you see."
This is not balance, I think as I cry
The bad outweighs good, why should I try?
But somehow, I go on, and try again
Feed the good, starve the bad…
The one that I feed, will win in the end.
Author notes
Option 5.
The above poem is based on:
Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a
battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2
"wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy,sorrow, regret,
greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false
pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
Look deeper than the words.
Written July 28th, 2006
A contest entry
- Life Experience and attitude by trista.
400 points, ended August 1, 2006, 12 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
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I like the flow of this. I like the story of the Old Cherokee and the grandson too.
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You just gave me more reason to feed the good. I appreciate your comment if only for that reason.
Sometimes there is meaning deeper than words. My teachers taught me that. Thank you for reinforcing it.
~Tawnya~
Edited on Jul 31, 1:23 p.m. because ''. -
well done... i like the idea behind this poem... and it concludes well.. it is a good arguement... the rhyme has a few flaws.. i don't think me and machine rhyme well... and the poem might work with some stronger language.. that would be my critisism... well done... a good point to make.. keep writing
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Threre is something to this, I just got tired
A number of cliche's I spotted here:
throw a bone
rage against the machine
bad outweighs good
I don't know if your teachers or anybody ever taught you there is something stale about worn out phrases. True, some say there is nothing new under the sun, but we still do our best not to use well worn phrases. That is, unless you're writing poetry for Hallmark.
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I really like the way you brought the story of the two wolves into this poem. The battle between good and bad is one we'll never completely win, I don't think, but as long as we keep trying we can hope good outweighs bad. Keep feeding that good "wolf"! Thank you so much for entering the contest and best of luck to you!
~J.
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