Poet'sUnited Midweek Motif ~ A Man's Day

“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how 
infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express 
and admirable! in action how like an angel! 
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty 
of the world! the paragon of animals! ” 
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! 
Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself
 in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . 
inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which 
is fraught with more misery than ages of that 
which he rose in rebellion to oppose.” 

― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important 
than any established style or system.” 
― Bruce Lee

Midweek Motif ~ A Man's Day

International Men's Day occurs on November 19th, but I didn't know that when I planned this prompt.  You can read about it HERE or on Wikipedia. I chose this motif because I want so much to read a loving phenomenal man poem.  And given so much news lately about men victimizing women, I thought we might foreground men who haven't committed crimes against women.  

Your Challenge: Let your poem show how a specific man is special.  Choose anyone you want--famous or not, living or dead.

source

Morte d'Arthur

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

So all day long the noise of battle roll'd

Among the mountains by the winter sea;

Until King Arthur's table, man by man,

Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their Lord,

King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,

The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,

Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,

And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,

A broken chancel with a broken cross,

That stood on a dark strait of barren land.

On one side lay the ocean, and on one

Lay a great water, and the moon was full.

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation.)

The Raggedy Man

BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

O the Raggedy Man! He works fer Pa;

An' he's the goodest man ever you saw!

He comes to our house every day,

An' waters the horses, an' feeds 'em hay;

An' he opens the shed—an' we all ist laugh

When he drives out our little old wobble-ly calf;

An' nen—ef our hired girl says he can—

He milks the cow fer 'Lizabuth Ann.—

    Ain't he a' awful good Raggedy Man?

         Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation)

For those who are new to Poets United:  

• Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
• Post your Man's Day  poem on your site, and then link it here.
• If you use a picture include its link.  
• Please leave a comment here and read and comment on our poems.

(Our next Midweek Motif is the Sun.  Yup! our Star.)

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