Charity Equates To Love Poem by James L. A. Huetson

The words Charity, Life and Love
Are all, interchangeable.
They all originate from above,
And come from a heavenly table.
Charity is bestowed to others
At four different levels my brothers.

At the lowest, and first, is because we must,
For it is bid by our dedication to duty.
We make sure that everyone knows so we can just
Bask in the glow of our marvelous gratuity.
Like the Pharisees of an earlier day
We may even stand in the streets to pray.

The second level, and visibly higher,
Is to be secret about it; not telling the crowd.
But the recipient is to know we are superior,
And thank us in a voice aloud.
It is necessary that he be appreciative
Or else what need would there be to give.

The third level up, next to the highest,
Requires that we never tell a living soul,
But now there is more to the test.
The receiver himself must not ever know.
This method is a total lesson in humility
Freeing oneself from the abyss of self-pity.

The absolute highest and greatest of all,
Is when we give automatically and don’t even know.
The beneficiary receives it and has no recall,
Of anyone involved in this act to bestow.
The rest of the world proceeds just as if
This never had happened, that there was no gift.