! ! In Praise Of Ego Poem by Michael Shepherd

In carefree, laughing, joyful mood –
let’s praise the ego, to its face!

Our most faithful mate throughout our life;
with us longer than our parents or our children are;

at our heels at all times, proud of head and tail,
saying to the world that ‘I belong to him! ’;

faithful as a dog; and cunning as a cat;
between them, running our un-mastered lives;

(and like the cosy purring cat you stroke upon your lap,
ego's the secret dark night-hunter, out to kill all life..)

ego, more awake than we ourselves,
never missing a living moment;

every heart-beat an opportunity;
sharper entrepreneur than any city slicker:

‘what’s in it for me? ’; there is no trick,
no turn, no market swing, that ego can’t exploit and profit from;

so let’s praise ego to its face; see the Creator’s own full force,
brilliant and magnificent, manifested, used, in ego’s skills…

but know, and know we know, its lifetime’s bitter secret:
for all its skills, its energies are stolen fuel…:

moment by moment sapping secretly,
the consciousness, the wisdom, happiness,

that seem just out of our elusive reach..
So – as we watch a child, so innocent,

playing its merry games of fantasy,
running round itself in playground and in park,

we laughing in parental love, sing out those magic words:
‘I’m watching you…! ’