“The Scottish Clans” [Poems Reflecting on Book, Portraits And Principles of the World's Great Men and Women – “Commercial Courage” - Cole]

Robert the Bruce (or Douglas, friend?)
Hid in a cave, watched spider wend
Its way from sloping wall of cave
To floor then back – for he behaved –

With perseverance ’till his web
Held fast on rock – then Robert said,
“I too will conquer, persevere,
Until this land of foe is cleared.

Sir Walter Scott that story told
Of Scottish kin in days of old;
He also noted that the Scots
Quite different were from English lot.

For English had two feuding clans
’Till Henry (seven) brought to the land
An end to feudal clannish strife,
And end to terrors of the Knight.

But Scots stayed on in tribal ways;
Fought kith and kin for many days;
Until we stop such nonsense cold,
Our kids will trade off bold with old.

So stop this talk of “dauntless heart”,
“Suppressing fear to do one’s part” –
“Determined”, “brave”, and “resolute”,
“Advance in step to others shoot” –

Applied like Sun Tsu’s Art of War
To business-life – as if the store
Where we buy bread and milk today
Is battleground of bloody fray.

At first I bought his cryptic tome –
Commercial courage” found its home
Within my heart, and then I thought,
Of Stonehenge days when farmers brought –

Their virgin-daughters to their god
To sacrifice for crops – seems odd
To us, but said Apostle then,
“Find other ways – this practice end”.

“What got us here won’t take us home”;
“Persistence”, “dauntless will” alone
Are neutral – we must watch the place
Where they’re applied in modern case.

Thanks Lord for this.

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