A SENSE OF PRIDE
By John Herlihy

The questioner mutely asked,
As though responding to a task:
Why do we feel a sense of pride,
That arrives when we succeed?
Why do we feel a sense of peace,
The pride is but a form of greed?
To succeed where other failed
Accords a rightful sense of power.
To accomplish what you nailed
Brings glow to the passing hour.
It makes you feel so much better
Than a less effective someone else.
You then feel so much respected,
Your joy surges in a racing pulse.
What to expect but emerging pride,
To be important all the worldwide.

The replier then astutely asked,
Only now feeling up to the task:
How can we feel a sense of pride,
To come when we don’t succeed?
How do we feel a sense of peace,
That may not draw on our greed?
A sense of success can energize,
As it seeps into the happy mind.
While failure may not demoralize,
Producing a joy of another kind.
An act of doing brings satisfaction,
A poem written and read a miracle.
A lack of success needs no retraction,
The poem will always remain lyrical.
The act of doing brings its own pride,
A true emotion no one needs to hide.