Love Seeks Not Its Own

Although I speak with eloquence

Like that of toastmasters and politicians,

And have not compassion,

I am only a sound station.

Although I can see visions

And have the competence

To realise impossible missions,

And although I have every confidence

To remain above others

And have not humanity,

I am pathetically empty.

Although I have the faculty

To clinch every opportunity

And have not generosity,

I am a vain entity.

Although I have the affluence

To ride through this turbulence

And have not benevolence,

I have no influence.

And although I subscribe to philanthropy

And have not the true motivation of charity,

I have not understood true profitability.

"Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

The poem above is reproduced from the author's 2002 Diary for Today's Men and Women: Reflections of Life.