The Manly Virtues Poem by David Welch

It seems that there is no shortage
of blind fools in the world today,
wishing that masculinity
would die, or whither away.
As if it were a simple choice,
and not written into our cells,
not realizing that without us
their future would not go well.
It may not be fashionable,
but that makes in no less true,
we need to teach both young and old
the value of manly virtues.

Ambition is a giant one,
and the most misunderstood,
but when channeled productively
it does us all enormous good.
The machines of the modern world
were not ordered by government,
but came from ambitious minds,
after years of toil spent.
The male need to be number one
gave us planes, computers, and cars,
so we teach our boys to use it,
and it takes society far.

Courage may be the most well-known,
and by many is called the best,
essential in a life that seems
an endless series of tests.
And those who test us never fail
to intimidate and make threats,
courage is what makes a man say,
"That's as far as you're gonna get."
When you wish to cower and flee,
when the bullets fly for real,
it's courage that stiffens the spine,
and makes men into hardened steel.

Then there comes Tenacity,
perhaps the strongest of the lot,
dismissed as mere ‘stubbornness'
by the folks who have not sought
to push a dream until its end,
to keep fighting until you've won,
in this grinding world stubbornness
is how all great things are done.
Not through strength or connections,
but by an endless force of will,
tenacity is what men use
to summit this life's steep hills.

Loyalty, of all of them,
is the most lacking in our time.
But there's untold importance in
staying true to those you find
who are sincere, honorable,
also true friends and family,
we build islands of refuge
in a sea of insanity.
Man's great rock of stability
in the swirling dance of wrong,
loyalties, it is fair to say
are civilization's bonds.

Finally, there is Aggression,
the hardest one to control,
but a good man who can fight hard
is more precious than even gold.
Some say we should abolish it,
that it does nothing but destroy,
forgetting that sometimes evil
is not something we can avoid.
And when evil seeks a victim,
it's this virtue that it must meet,
were it not for male aggression
not a single soul would live free.

People who would dismiss these things,
who would lie and call them ‘toxic, '
strike me as people that inside
are frightened, broken, or sick.
To banish the traits that make us,
that built a world from sticks and stones,
comes off as mindless sophistry
from minds that are not yet grown.
And though they'll never admit this,
I feel it must always be said,
were it not for the manly virtues,
we'd be concubines, slaves, or dead.