This week’s Thursday Poetry Prompt at We Drink Papi gave us just one word: Honor…
On my honor,
I will try…to do my duty
to God and my Country
to help other people at all times
and to obey the Girl Scout Law.
For six years I said this pledge
with three fingers in the air
solemnly believing
every single word I said…
and
though the years have passed
and I rebelled against
the system
illusions that were weaved
to trample people into poverty
and
though my country
has become a planet
and I don’t believe in gods
that pledge
is still a part of me…
for
the law that I pledged to then:
honesty and being fair
helping people everywhere
to be considerate and to care
to be courageous and to be strong
responsible for my words
respect myself and others
and to make a better world…
yes
I still feel honor bound
to obey these “silly” laws
and renew this vow still now
with every action that I take
I try to integrate
that childhood ideal…
because it’s good
and is a part of me.
Other poems:
Honor In The Modern Age | Liars, Hypocrites & The Development of Human Emotion
Cloaked in Honor | The Seeker’s Dungeon
A Palindrome for Honor | The Arkside of Thought by Sahm King
Honor: We Drink Because We’re Poets -Thursday Poetry Prompt #12 | Rob’s Real Life
Cop Story | Still Doing Something
Honor – A Paradelle | Shainbird
What is Honor? | Liars, Hypocrites & The Development of Human Emotion
Participating for the first time: We Drink Because We’re Poets, Poetry Prompt | A collection.
and on the prompt page: Running Son and Ye Olde Foole
Wow, this one speaks to me so much. Not Girl Scout specifically, was never in that, but just… systems I was in that I no longer follow, but much of it still sticks with me. Beautiful.
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Thanks…the other day I was in the library and wrote a completly different sort of poem, about a clergyman’s wife that ran off with a traveling fuller brush salesman…but for some reason the draft, vanished 😦 but in the meantime…my childhood keeps popping up this week and this silly pledge came to mind..I discovered writing it, that as you say much still stick with me…thanks for the comment!
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I love your description of honor. The second last line “because it’s good” really clinches it for me. Sometimes it really is as simple as that. Very lovely poem.
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Thanks…you know…between you and me, I’m not sure I described honor though…just things I believe.
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I like the pledge and the good it inspires…but, I found the meetings boring and I didn’t care about earning badges… I did like camping trips and bike trips and that trip I took to Boston with my troop.
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True…stopped going when I was 12. Still remember the pledge though.
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Pingback: Honor – A Paradelle | Shainbird
Niceness, Bastet. I love it.
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