Favorite Poems: There Are Men Too Gentle To Live Among Wolves

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who prey upon them with IBM eyes
And sell their hearts and guts for martinis at noon.
There are men too gentle for a savage world
Who dream instead of snow and children and Halloween
And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who anoint them for burial with greedy claws
And murder them for a merchant’s profit and gain.
There are men too gentle for a corporate world
Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass
And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who devour them with appetite and search
For other men to prey upon and suck their childhood dry.
There are men too gentle for an accountant’s world
Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass
And search for beauty in the mystery of the sky.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who toss them like a lost and wounded dove
Such gentle men are lonely in a merchant’s world
Unless they have a gentle one to love.

James Kavanaugh


This is one of a few posts of favorite poems that I've timed to go up while I'm on vacation.   This poem became a favorite for me because it describes today's world so well.  A world so focused on the power of the almighty dollar--the merchant's world.  Where every holiday, every event, even every emotion, has been turned into a way to make a profit.  Where every one of those "too gentle" men is a gift and an inspiration.