The Ultimate Test



The Ultimate Test ©
Gary Shulman, MS. Ed.
July 5, 2021

Those who purport to talk to God
And follow a life of devotion
Then spew pure venom and hatred supreme
With scowling faces and indignant emotion
Quick to claim “Well Jesus said……..”
Then they follow their bigoted brain
His teachings of love and kindness
Seem to be all in vain
To claim to follow a peaceful soul
Whose life was about love we are told
Who wanted nothing more for us
Than kindness for young and for old
Then turn around with hateful hearts
and claim superiority
Is that what faith is all about?
Is that what it’s supposed to be?
I guess I will have to live my life
Just as I always have done
Just sharing kindness, love and peace
I know I’m not the only one
To realize life should never be
About “I am better than you!”
Be you Muslim, Buddhist, Protestant.
Quaker, Mormon or Jew
Lordy I hope I’m not preaching
Or telling you how to live your life
Just speaking my peace to the bigots
Your hypocrisy causes way too much strife
My brain cells now have spoken
My heart and soul shall rest
Together we must counter the bigots
Make this your ultimate test!

About this poem

A poem about living a life of love and kindness and not one of religious hypocrisy.

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Submitted by shulman.gary on July 05, 2021

Modified by shulman.gary on September 10, 2022

1:06 min read
29

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABX XCXCBDEDXFEFXGXGHCXCGIXIXHJHCAJA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,142
Words 221
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 3, 32

Gary Shulman, MS. Ed.

Gary Shulman, MS. Ed. has spent a lifetime supporting vulnerable families and children. He began his career working with children with and without disabilities in an inclusive Head Start program in Brooklyn NY. He then transitioned to become the Special Needs and Early Childhood Coordinator for the Brooklyn Children's Museum for 10 years. His passion for advocacy grew as he worked more and more with parents of children with disabilities. For over 24 years he passionately advocated for the needs of these parents as the Social Services and Training Director for Resources for Children with Special Needs, Inc. in NYC. The last 8 years of his working life, Mr. Shulman served as a private Special Needs Consultant conducting hundreds of training sessions throughout NYC and beyond to help parents and professionals find and access the services and systems required to facilitate maximizing the potential of their children with disabilities. Now Mr. Shulman is happily retired in Palm Springs CA, but still volunteers his time any way he can to provide information to those in need of his expertise. Today, Gary enjoys sharing his poetry that he passionately writes with the goal of leaving this world a better place one word at a time. more…

All Gary Shulman, MS. Ed. poems | Gary Shulman, MS. Ed. Books

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    "The Ultimate Test" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/104266/the-ultimate-test>.

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