By Roger Chao
Anthem for Tomorrow’s Child
Dear child of mine, a seed of wonder’s womb,
In verses dressed, I pen for you a creed.
This humble anthem, destined to bloom,
Shall guide your course when wisdom you shall need.
When life presents you paths of thorns and gold,
Look past the shine, and search the rose’s heart,
For often times, the glitter we behold,
Veils but the truth, which tears all gleam apart.
A virtue carved from marble’s patient strife,
Is perseverance dressed in time’s array.
Persist, my child, through every slice of life,
For darkness serves to mold the coming day.
Your journey’s length may test your spirit’s mettle,
But trust the strength of your resilient heart.
With self-belief, the universe will settle,
And every challenge shall become your art.
Yet keep in mind, the virtue of integrity,
An attribute both rare and very fine.
Truth is the soul of genuine nobility,
It lights your path when shadows intertwine.
Walk in the shoes of others, seek to see,
A perspective broader than a gaze devout.
For understanding blossoms like a tree,
When we sow seeds of empathy, they sprout.
Hold your composure, my beloved daughter,
When tempests rage and gnaw at your heart’s door.
Let tranquility be your sacred water,
You’ll stand unbroken, stronger than before.
Accept responsibility for each action,
Know that your deeds are echoes in life’s hall.
Through ripples, they bear truth and satisfaction,
You are the author of your own life’s scrawl.
Stumble, you will, on life’s uneven trail,
Yet failure is but knowledge in disguise.
Each falter is a ship set to sail,
On seas of learning, ‘neath the wisest skies.
Know the virtue of humility’s grace,
It’s a subtle power, the heart’s quiet song.
True confidence speaks softly, face to face,
While arrogance shouts loudly, and often wrong.
With courage, approach life’s lofty climb,
Yet tether your aspirations with a line.
Success and failure, both teachers of time,
To each, pay respect, in their hands, you’ll shine.
In the theatre of emotions, take your place,
Control the strings, let not the puppet sway.
Your feelings are the paints for your life’s space,
Don’t let them bleed to muddle your pathway.
And when the world bears down with furious weight,
Remember, my child, the virtue of forgiving.
Anger is a fickle, fleeting mate,
Forgiveness is the essence of living.
While these words seem long, and can feel like teething,
Keep in your heart this enduring fact:
The virtues that we strive to keep breathing,
In day to day, are the hardest to enact.
Still, strive, my child, for a life well-lived,
Is not the sum of what we gain or lose.
It’s the wisdom earned, the love we’ve given,
The virtues embraced, in every path we choose.
So hold these words as a gentle light,
That guides you through life’s intricate dance.
With patience, perseverance, strength and might,
You’ll embrace life’s complex, beautiful chance.
In this poem of life, long and winding,
With layers of meaning, deep and vast.
I gift to you, this humble binding,
Of wisdom whispered from the past.
Remember, my child, as you tread life’s road,
You’re the author of your own verse, my dear.
Paint your life with virtues clear and bestowed,
And you shall dance with wisdom, free of fear.
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Roger Chao is a writer based in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, where the forest and local community inspire his writings. Passionate about social justice, Roger strives to use his writing to engage audiences to think critically about the role they can play in making a difference.
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The Gaza Sten-Gun Staccato closely followed by Battle Cry of the Unbowed closely followed by Inter-Generational Trauma very very closely followed by Anthem for Tomorrow’s Child. Poetry week on AIMN. Great stuff!
And all are outstanding, Keith.
If you love children, don’t bring any into this world.
Hotspringer, if you love children, make this world better for them.
Young people do what young people do; they mate & procreate, as they have done from time immemorial. Such are the urges of all living things. Life, it has often been observed, is generous with its fecundity. And Gaia has supported all life with generous provision of the essential materials to support all life on this planet; homeostasis, fresh water for the creatures that require it and marine waters that support all marine creatures large & small in their countless numbers, as well as sufficient vegetation on both land and sea for the herbivores and oceanic grazers along with omnivores like humans and a relatively small number of other mammals, meat in its myriad forms for carnivores, scavengers and the human herd… all of this was taken for granted and assumed to be an unchangeable given that would continue forever…
Until now, these times, these years, and for those willing to pay attention, these coming decades; the light at the end of the tunnel would appear to be the beam of a gargantuan colossus of impending tragedy bearing down on not only humanity but all life on this planet. Homeostatic conditions essential for healthy living are no longer a given. Oceans are acidifying. Temperatures are rising. Rivers are dying. Glaciers are melting, along with polar ice caps. Deforestation continues on a massive scale. Extinction rates are off the scale in both within and across species, in all environs. Pollution continues to poison air, water & soils, along with the as yet undefined consequences of the hundreds of thousand of types of chemicals poured into the biosphere. New diseases are appearing, and old ones reappearing, while many medicines appear to have reached their limit of effectiveness.
Climate crisis is crap, said a former prime minister. ‘Crisis, what crisis?’, ask the fossil fuel giants. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General said that “humanity has opened the gates of hell,” and politicians shrug their shoulders in impotency and sign off on another coal mine, another oil-drilling venture, another gas project.
Climate scientists, biologists, ecologists, oceanographers and others in the mix weep in despair at the evident complacency and inertia that is the dominant paradigm of the current zeitgeist as economists and capitalists insist on endless growth, ignoring the reality that is all around them, and babies continue to be born, and will live to inherit this unfolding hell on earth.
Hotspringer is correct, if you truly love children, then act responsibly and don’t bring anymore into this world.
Pity the children who will inherit this earth, and pity their forebears for their ignorance, their estrangement from Gaia, their selfishness and thoughtlessness and greed and for taking for granted that the benefits of the fossil fuel age would continue indefinitely.
One becomes concerned at calls by older people for young people to do something, or simply don’t exist, paying for actions and choices of oldies and boomers attaching themselves to fossil fuels, IC vehicles, large houses and consumerism.
Fact is economics is speeding up transition fast to renewable energy sources with economic growth, but Australia like the Anglosphere is lagging (Burn-Murdoch FT), only two nations in the world with positive fertility trends, Georgia & Israel (WB), when the baby boomer passes populations will settle i.e. peak mid century then decline, both transition and fertility decline can be positive*
*See Fred Pearce ‘The Coming Population Crash: and Our Planet’s Surprising Future’, Beacon Press, 2010′, science writer, based on demographic research and ignoring the Tanton/Ehrlich fossil fueled ZPG Population Bomb agitprop followed locally, concluded that population would peak much earlier (supported by many demographers & researchers inc. Bricker & Ibbitson of ‘Empty Planet’).
Statistically speaking, the last 1/2C has seen human population doubled, area of tree canopy halved and wildlife populations reduced by >50%.
Sorry kids, we have taken your biospheric inheritance, bent it over a barrel and buggered it bloody.
I take some comfort in the fact that I’ve always bagged my own seed.
Caught in the traps of desire, as we try to make nature go fast, comforted by bling, our thoughts are turned from our responsibilities to the earth, whilst wailing for the rights of the child as if it’s the responsibility of others.
When once we sacrificed the child to the gods, we now have the great abdication to modernity.