James D Rapp

And Your Neighbor as Yourself James D Rapp

This is Jim Rapp's eighth volume of poetry. It is a collection poems presented in four sections, each section an attempt to illustrate how this artist (poet) attempts to fulfill the admonition to love God with all his heart, soul, and mind AND his neighbor as himself. As in his previous poetry, Jim writes of his love of nature, his thoughts on aging, his interaction with the thoughts of other authors, his devotion to God, and his concerns for our nation and the world. He grieves with those who grieve and rejoices with those who are rejoicing. Jim's concern for our nation is expressed in the final section of poems. He is concerned that our nation and its present leaders have forsaken the humanitarianism that has guided us since at least the middle of the 19th century. Though we claim to be a Christian nation, and though the present Republican Party and its leader, Donald Trump, wear their professed piety on their sleeve, they have forsaken the foremost evidence of Christian behavior, the love of neighbor. This book is a call for our nation to return to the promise embodied in the message and symbolism of the Statue of Liberty, that all who come in need will be received, protected, and helped to find a better life than that from which they are fleeing.