For Barack Obama

Above all earthly creatures made
By God, the power to persuade
By using spoken language, to
Man only was allotted, through
Which he might speak his heartfelt views
Without regard to what ensues.
This faculty is not a feature
Seen in any other creature.
Honesty therefore should guide
One to whom God this gift supplied;
And take great caution not to loose
His language for a lawless use;
But in the books this truth we find:
More than all earthly things combined
Do words a power great possess,
Whether it be to curse or bless.
For if words plausible appear
And are well spoken to man's ear
But really are with lies replete,
They oft accomplish great deceit;
For when the concept and the word
Discordant are, the meaning blurred
By double talk and speech that's slick,
We must despise such Rhetoric.
It's fitting for a king to flee
The vice of Prodigality,
That his expenses he'll contain
So that he solvent will remain;
Whoso needs wealth so he can flout it
All the worse he'll fare without it.
Aristotle, from Chaldea
An example that would be a
Good one, to his pupil taught
About a restive folk distraught
For their king taxed them to the hilt.

For Bill Clinton

For as in his domain a king
Is lord in charge of everything,
The heart does likewise run the show,
With reason blessed so that he'll know
The way to govern righteously.
Thus nature has, as we can see,
Made man in this way, in control;
But God, who's jealous of the soul;
Has made it from a different mold,
Whose secrets no man may unfold;
But as the holy books record,
You'd think from God's own mold it's poured,
By virtue of whose likeness it
High noble nature does befit,
Appropriate to its own kind.
But ofttimes are its wits made blind
And all because its destiny
Must tied up with the body be;
Since it must with the body dwell,
With one's desire drawn down to hell,
Whereas the other's heaven bound;
Thus they can find no common ground,
But if a rein be thrown around,
The errant flesh, and then control
Is fully taken by the soul,
The flesh may then itself patrol.

For Governor Sanford

Man's carnal nature can be served,
And too the law of God observed.
Though woman is made for the man,
And though one suitor many can
Desire, it need not be that way;
For when a man's wife wants to play,
Why should he seek in other fields,
For crops begetting different yields,
To borrow someone else's hoe,
And his sufficient gear forgo
Which is more suited to his needs
For plowing and for sowing seeds,
Responsive to his own command?
Thus every man should understand,
That to be true, in marriage rites
He pledges, as his troth he plights;
If he defaults, it is a lie;
His manhood forfeit is thereby.
From this example one may see
That when love reaches that degree
Where marriage is the proper thing,
It's well, reminded by the ring,
Lust under law's control to bring.
For God has every law decreed
That reason might admonish need;
Though beasts would only be required
By nature's laws to be inspired,
To man who's in His image made
God reason gave which, when obeyed,
Will help him nature's laws adjust
That he might sublimate his lust,
And into lechery not fall,
In this way he can have it all,
Both nature's law and reason's too
From which no scandal can ensue.

For all Justices

Fabricius in one eye blind,
A Roman censor, comes to mind,
Who also was a Consul from
Whom laws did go and laws did come;
For when the Samnites to him brought
A sum of gold, and him besought
Some legal favor them to pay,
He from the gold did back away,
And then within the sight of all
He took a portion of this haul,
Which to his mouth he put in haste
To see how it would smell and taste,
And to his ear, and one good eye,
But he no pleasure found thereby.
And then disgust he did display
And spoke unto them in this way:
"I know not what's the use of gold
When it leaves my five senses cold,
With nothing to delight therein.
So it's a most foolhardy sin
To be so covetous of gold;
But he has riches manifold,
Who does in his subjection have
Those men who see in gold a salve
Of soothing riches, in this way:
If with one man he is okay,
But to another he is loath,
He can do justice unto both."
Lo, thus he spake, and with that fable
Said, while throwing on the table
All the gold held in his hand,
'To me this might as well be sand.'
And thus he kept his freedom to
Fair equitable justice do -
Was this integrity, or what!
There now are few such leaders, but
In those times it was always so
That every judge would have to go
Who was to equity no friend.
But those on whom one could depend
To make sure that the truth was heard
Were for those offices preferred
To render justice in each case,
A practice which now has no place.
Now laws are made and then ignored
If that would benefit some lord.

For all First Ladies

To show the woman's mastery,
He tells this tale which he did see
That shows the strength of woman's love:
How Apeymen the daughter of
Besazis, that fair courtesan
Of Cyrus, when he sat upon
His throne and did with anger fume
About his realm's impending doom,
This tyrant king she did embrace,
And with but her good looks and grace
She made him gentle, mild, and meek,
And by the chin and by the cheek
She dragged him round, with this technique,
At first she kissed him, then she teased,
And did with him whate'er she pleased;
So when she scowls, his spirits sink,
And when she's glad, he's tickled pink:
Thus was this king to putty turned
By this fair miss for whom he yearned.
For men there is no joy without
Some woman they can care about;
But for the women, gentle, coy,
For men the world would hold no joy:
They help a man grow from a boy
Into a knight with worldly fame,
Instilling in him fear of shame,
His love for honor they impart.
And by their beauty is the dart
Of Cupid forged which from his bow
He sends to make that passion grow,
Which has the whole world in it's thrall.
A woman is the whole man's all.

For all Lobbyists

As Aristotle made quite clear
A king should to the rule adhere
To modify and to address
The gifts he gives out of largesse,
That moderation might prevail,
For if a king's finances fail,
All sorts of other things go wrong,
And then his hand will not be strong.
One who will not himself control,
No longer plays a frugal role;
The thought of saving makes him cringe,
He craves instead a spending binge.
And that's the mother of distress
Which makes of many lands a mess;
The old philosopher went on
To speak about a certain con,
How flatterers three sins commit
For which they all deserve hell's pit.
One is toward the gods on high,
Who when this mischief they espy,
Are wroth to see the grief that follows
When the king their flimflam swallows.
Next a sin that's meant  to cheat
The king, when they by their deceit
And lying words, persuade him to
See black as white and green as blue
As it pertains to his affairs.
For coupled with extortion there's
A host of other crooked snares,
But let a man of one complain
Or speak in a disdainful vein,
And they, with soothing words to fool,
Claim everything they do is cool.
So falsehood into truth they turn,
So that their king cannot discern
Exactly what is going on.
The third garb flattery does don,
Causing the people much chagrin,
Derives from wrongs that it brings in:
Thus they commit a triple sin,
These flatterers around a king.
There surely can be no worse thing
Within the realm of royalty,
Than is the vice of flattery.
It's been a custom not to thwart,
Those speaking out in royal court,
A privilege everyone is proud
To have, that's always been allowed,
And may it ever be maintained.
But when it by this vice is stained,
By those who virtue should invoke
And truth parades in covin's cloak,
Then inmates the asylum run,
As this old tale will show, my son.

For all Lawmakers

There is to Practice yet a third
Concern, for on kings is conferred
The duty to establish laws
A realm to govern, free of flaws,
And that is Policy, pertaining
Only to a monarch reigning
O'er his land, in war or peace,
That wealth and honor might increase
For merchants, knights, and those who lease,
And all the other people that
Regard his realm their habitat,
Within the town or countryside,
Those who themselves as craftsmen pride,
As well as masters with great fame,
All those who any skill can claim.
And though they be not all the same,
Some low in status, others high.
One law must to all men apply,
Whether they lose or they prevail,
Whether they prosper or they fail.

For all Commanders

We learn from Solomon's wise pen,
Just as there is a time that's right
For peace, so there's a time to fight
A war, in which with righteous zeal,
A king protects the common weal,
Twixt Pity's bent to be too kind
And foolish cruelty, we find
The essence of true bravery.
A true king must know when to be
Inclined from war to shy away;
But when the time is right to slay
His foes, arrayed in battle gear,
He must not hesitate in fear.

For all Tyrants

There have been tyrants, and will be,
Incapable of charity,
Whose hearts will ne'er to mercy bend
That in their tyranny they'd tend
A little more humane to be;
But as the raging of the sea
No Pity in the tempest shows,
So Pity out the window goes
With that excess of cruelty
We in the hearts of tyrants see.
A tyrant soars, he'll crash and burn,
Then will the tables on him turn,
And what he did to others will
To him be done, a bitter pill
Of vengeance sent from God above.
For he who has no tender love
To save men from a deadly fate,
Of guilt will carry such a weight,
That when for mercy he would plead.
His cries for help God shall not heed.