On Children and Peace

On Children and Peace

     David Angel 

A softie, I admit it
I mostly fake bravado
A poem which truly moves me 
A message in a bottle

I think its in the public
Domain where I can share it
Without getting a letter
From some piranha lawyer

His poetry is stately
Ya read The Prophet lately?
Written back when Beirut was 
Called the Paris of the East

"No tears in the writer is 
No tears in the reader," said
Another worthy writer
Not Bob, they called him Robert

The world’s beauty near and far
Pray for children everywhere
May no snake of war slither
Make poets wince or wither

Copyright ©️ 2026, David Angel, All Rights Reserved 


PoetNote - 

Before children of my "own," 
Adored his book of poems
Fables philosophical
Find a copy if you're able

Get through it without tears?
If so, to you three cheers!
You're a better man than me
Or at least a tougher cookie!

On Children
 
     Kahlil Gibran 1883 –
1931

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
     And he said:
     Your children are not your children.
     They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
     They come through you but not from you,
     And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

     You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
     For they have their own thoughts.
     You may house their bodies but not their souls,
     For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
     You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
     For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
     You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
     The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
     Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
     For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

- poets. org

Hat tip - 

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."

- Robert Frost 


On Children -  Prose poem from The Prophet, Kalil Gibran (1923) 

Inspiration - Before You Had a Name, John Rinaldo @jrinaldo