Humility

[Dark Muse]

Here is the next, and final installment for the Dark Side of Virtue

Humility

Keep your head bowed low,
eyes to the floor,
a virtual unknown,
bearing the burdens of the world
upon your shoulders
without a peep or word of complaint.

Hunchbacked beneath the weight,
kept stooped down,
no one knows your name,
never seeking praise
only toiling in an act of sacrifice.

Give up yourself
for nothing in return
with lips closed tight,
turning a blind eye when now and then
someone else basks in the glory
of your achievements.

As they climb up on the back
of your labored work
scarcely leaving crumbs behind
you keep silent and support them too
never dropping the load.

As a shadow
you work just behind sight
never making yourself seen,
it must be enough only for yourself
to know all you have done.

But even that may be too much,
you must not bask in your
own admiration, but
stay bent low
accepting all as simple duty.

[miyako73]

Soothing! It's not preachy. Nice.

[hillwalker]

Another fine piece, DM. Nicely rounding off a really ambitious set of poems.

H

[Delta40]

ugh reminds me of my martyr mother. very effective though. Now I want to slap a person like that real hard. just my mood today.
good writing Muse

[Dark Muse]

Another fine piece, DM. Nicely rounding off a really ambitious set of poems.

H

Thank you! It was fun, but every new virtue did present its own challenge in how to show it best under a darker light.

[Bar22do]

This is effective and such a person highly irritating (full of self-hatred one feels).
It was interesting to follow dark virtues as seen by DM! Thanks for this series! - Bar

[Dark Muse]

Thank you for being one of my avid followers of the series.

[Bar22do]

As I re-read your Humility, it brought to mind, by thought association, a splendid, exquisite poem by Ammons called "Still" which I'm sure you'll be delighted to read (or rediscover if you know it...). So here is the link to it: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15226

Best wishes and thanks again - Bar

[Dark Muse]

Thanks a lot for sharing the poem, it is one of which I was not previously familiar and I can certainly see the similarities.

[tailor STATELY]

I find it hard to qualify virtue as being dark in any sense (to each one's own).

I found your dark perspective well versed - with but a quibble:


As a shadow
you work just behind sight
never making yourself seen,
it must by enough only for yourself
to know all you have done.

In L4 above should 'by' be 'be' ?

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[Dark Muse]

I find it hard to qualify virtue as being dark in any sense (to each one's own).

I found your dark perspective well versed - with but a quibble:



In L4 above should 'by' be 'be' ?

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

Thank you for catching that, and I personally think that any virtue can become a vice if it is take to the extreme and followed too literally without any flexibility. All virtues have the potential to lead one to self-destructive tendencies.