The Roots of Hatred

May 30, 2013 #739

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem about hatred.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The roots of hatred run so deep
We drink their poison in our sleep.
Deep within or deep below,
The roots run deeper than we know.

Day and night, and night and day
We while the precious time away
Hating, writhing, seething, ranting,
All the while new hate seeds planting.

In the mind and in the heart,
In the whole and in each part,
The anger clenches flesh and soul,
Taking a titanic toll.

O love, the wind that winnows well
The hate that holds the heart in hell,
Come and kiss the urge to kill,
And storms abate, and tempests still.

Love comes alone to those who call,
And love themselves along with all,
Love the roots and love the tree,
And know that you are part of me;

And know that I am part of you,
And you become the things I do,
And what I hate is what I am,
Both hungry wolf and slaughtered lamb.

So do not hate the hate within,
But love the love, and love the sin,
Love the beast and love the prey,
For both one word of wonder say.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Watch me recite the poem at http://youtu.be/fEmoKh-sr2g.