Gratitude Poem by Venkateswaran Krishnan Sreenivasan

Be grateful to the good God for being
Born a human with a mind to think
Of the inner anguish of a fellow being
And act to mitigate the sting.

Be grateful to the Lord whether ill or well
And pray from our depths to keep the devil at bay
When sickness will strike, no one can tell
Thank Him again for a healthy day.

My teachers together with my parents are my mentors
They still remain my holy preceptors
My life’s eternal leading lights
To my present glory and heights

I owe them whatever on earth I own;
My wealth, status and renown;
I pay gratitude to these souls unknown
And known, still living or gone

Love thy neighbour like thyself as decreed in the Gospel,
Gratitude to our neighbour is an attitude to dispel
Distress, stress and unhappiness
And confer love, bliss and forgiveness.

Be grateful on earth to every plant and beast
That bestows on our life a virtual feast
Could we dream of a world where we
Roam around and only the faces of humans see

Gratitude does not foresee any reward
It is a blossom that springs from the heart inward
Spontaneous and copious like the rain from the cloud
Soothing, yet untainted by the applause of the crowd.

Gratitude is not a barter deal
The one who takes has no right to it
Nor the one who gives to make it a ploy to exploit
The generous and the genteel



Gratitude builds up the moral fiber
Of man to man dealings into the strong
Cord of love, faith and armour
To guard against the platitude of the throng

Aren’t we unkind to our angel mother
Who tended us tenderly in our tender years?
To leave her to her fate in guileless tears
With no atonement for our sin to offer

Ingratitude is a loathsome sin
That negates human virtues, character and truth
It bites deep like a venomous serpent
Into the generous and noble heart within