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What About Me? – A Poem About Honor

December 23, 2015 By Greg Marcus 1 Comment

What About Me?

What about me? is what

My soul cries.

I flee from Honor but like a

Leopard it hunts me.

What about me?

I look back and Run Run Run

What about me?

The tears fall down my face as I

Run Run Run.

I stumble, and am caught.

What about me? I whimper

I am gently set on my feet.

I smile.

I breathe.

And I stride.

 

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Filed Under: Featured, Honor, Poem Tagged With: flee from honor, honor, jewish poetry, mussar poetry, spiritual poetry

Comments

  1. Greg Marcus says

    December 23, 2015 at 2:01 am

    Author’s note: I wrote this poem in my journal immediately after a long discussion of fleeing from Honor with my study partner. As a prompt, we read the following:

    “If one pursues honor, it will elude him, but if one flees from honor it will pursue him.” (Eruvin 13b) A man once approached his rabbi to ask how it was that he kept fleeing from honor and it somehow never caught up with him. “The trouble is,” said his rabbi, “you keep looking back over your shoulder” (Irving Bunim 1901-­‐1980). – Alan Morinis, Every Day Holy Day p. 235

    The conversation took place in Week 11 of A Season of Mussar, a class by The Mussar Institute

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