Nelson Lives

They say he died, I don’t believe it’s so,
when millions, no, when billions, even more
hear of him now on worldwide radio,
his life much more alive than heretofore.

He taught the races how to get along,
and then achieved real reconciliation,
flawed like us all, he wrestled right and wrong,
hostility he cooled to build a nation.

Like King and Abe, our conscience was his field,
he urged an end to hate and violence,
to us with his own body he appealed
by prison civil disobedience.

His ways of peace have made our hearts his shrine
he lives as I take them to heart as mine.

                        by Pete Voelz      12/10/13