reckoning

Jimmy Carter died yesterday.
Obituaries spit out
his well-trodden titles:
   peanut farmer
   parent
   president
   peacemaker

But did you know
he held another?
   Poet.

His book of poetry
on my bedside table
reminds me that
no matter how much
   power
   knowledge
   influence
one human can wield,
it is nothing
without a sense of self.