GoSetaPhire

  APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

Published in 1854, in Frederick Douglass’ Paper.

I present a poem written by Aretus Adams.

WHO IS OUR NEIGHBOR?-A QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED

A neighbor is the one who thou

Hast power to aid and bless,

The aching head and throbbing brow,

Whose wrongs we ought redress.

Surely, it is the panting poor,

Whose eyes by want are dim,

Whom hunger sends door from door--

Go thou and succor them.

He's near you, 'tis the very man,

Whose years are at their brim,

Bent down with sorrows, care and pain--

Go thou and comfort him.

Many there be whose hearts bereft

Of every earthly friend,

Widows and Orphans helpless left--

Go thou and shelter them.

Unto thy neighbor's a toiling slave,

Fettered in mind and limb,

Whose hopes are all beyond the grave--

Go thou and ransom him.

To be a neighbor, is in fact

Just what the lord designed--

To be in sympathy with Christ,

A lover of mankind.