I Know Who I Am/I Am Often Less Than Happy With It Poem by Shalom Freedman

I know who I am
I am often less than happy with it
I am not a hero
I do not have great courage
I am not an adventurer
I have not been a teacher
I am a man alone
A writing man
Playing a game with myself
For over seventy years
I am a careful man
A worried man an anxious man
A sometimes- depressed man
A caring man a helping man a kind man
A loving man
A lonely man
A failure in more than one way
Not the best husband
Nor the best father
A caring father a caring husband
Not much in most things
Awkward and behind
Slow to learn in so many ways
A man of internal contradictions
in thought and feeling
A happy man a singing man a loving man
at times
A praying man
A needing God man
A Jewish man
A loving Israel man
An American man
An old man
A struggling man
A kind man,
I hope