Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday is Today

This one sure­ly goes in the cat­e­go­ry of “lead­er­ship poems”. A friend passed it along to me and I’ve repost­ed from this site. Tru­ly beau­ti­ful. A won­der­ful day to hon­or Nel­son Man­dela, feel and express gratitude.

[Adden­dum: 7/19/08: Miki Sax­on of Lead­er­ship Turn and David Zinger of Slack­er Man­ag­er point to a fine arti­cle about Man­dela by Richard Sten­gel. It’s quite a pow­er­ful piece.]

One Love

Once there was a man, and he lived to sing the lion’s song
As he trav­eled on a road of hope
One Love is the light, shin­ing over every moun­tain top
It will lead us to the high­er ground
One day every heart will beat strong against the night
Let it be done right now

Once there was a man, and his words became a song of love
And his song became the gold­en dream
One Love is the light, shin­ing over every­one that believes
It will lead us to the high­er ground
One day every eye will see truth before the light
Let it be done right now

Some wait, so long
Because our love is strong
This hard road trav­eled on
Will lead us home, forever

Hear the lion’s song, voic­es cryin’ like a desert wind
Yeh he’s gone unto his father’s land
Afri­ka tonight, for we tru­ly are one in our hearts
Col­ors woven in the gold­en dream

One day every eye will see truth before the light
Let it be done right now
One day every voice will speak strong against the night
Let us be one right now
So let it be

We are the chil­dren of a thou­sand days
We are the peo­ple of the hard rain
We are the chil­dren of a thou­sand days
We are the peo­ple of the hard rain
We are the peo­ple of the hard rain

Writ­ten by: Neil Ger­al­do & Myron Grombacher

Technorati Tag: Reflections and Poems