.

Love and Vipers

for Harrison Butker, the football player criticized for supporting
traditional views of women in a commencement address

How hated you are for proclaiming love—
Not just your own, but love as sacrifice,
Selfless and fruitful at once, that puts no price
On what it builds, and draws strength from above.

The vipers spat their venom, bared their fangs
Like demons from the cloaca of hell,
Too blinded by their own self-love to tell
The rage they felt was lovelessness’s pangs.

Yes, they are loveless: love does not attack
The one who speaks of love, much less who shows
The love he tells. No! Their rage springs from spite.

Facing their spite, not once did you draw back,
Confident that each heart that knows love knows
That by their hatred you are proven right.

.

.

Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. In addition to the Society’s publications, his poems and prose works have appeared in The Chained Muse Review, Indiana Voice Journal, and other literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.

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22 Responses

  1. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    The chosen form of a sonnet for backing the beautiful words of Harrison Butker is perfect for capturing the significance of his message. Serpents hiss at the mere thought of “love as sacrifice, / Selfless and fruitful at once, that puts no price / On what it builds, and draws strength from above.” These wonderful words give all those who recognize love in its purest form every reason to spread the word of love. Adam, thank you for doing just that.

    Reply
    • Adam Sedia

      Thank you! I like the sonnet because it’s a closed form and safeguards against rambling. Here, though, I thought it was especially appropriate, as the form originated as a love song. What struck me most about Butker’s speech was the absolute adoration he has for his wife, which should be admired.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Adam, I believe love is a rare gift, not experience by those far too absorbed with a power-crazed agenda to benefit from its wonders. These spiteful scoffers know it exists. When words of love are spoken, the jealousy of Othello ignites, and pure hatred is unleashed. Selfless love highlights ills by shining a spotlight on their darkness. I believe love conquers all, which is why Harrison Butker’s speech, and your poem are so important.

  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    Harrison Butker wasn’t just attacked by the usual suspects of feminists, MSM journalists, LGBTQ types, wokesters, and left-liberal ideologues. A pack of aging, over-the-hill Novus Ordo nuns from Mt. Saint Scholastica College also went after him for not being in the spirit of Vatican 2, and not showing proper deference to DEI ideology.

    The poison that was spat at Butker came not just from secularists, but also from infiltrators in nominally Catholic religious orders.

    Reply
    • Adam Sedia

      The (dying) novus ordo orders never disappoint when it comes to taking the anti-Catholic view. But demographics do not lie: compare Butker’s age (or that of the average SSPX priest) with the average age of those “nuns.” As much as those in charge resist, the trends are set.

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Not to discount their capacity for venom, the critical sisters are indeed a dying community. Mount Saint Scholastica College closed decades ago, when it was merged with the College of Saint Benedict to form Benedictine College, my son’s alma mater and the place where Harrison Butker was invited to give the commencement address this year, precisely because his views are known and shared by faculty, students, and administrators. When my son matriculated 15 years ago, I met a group of faculty celebrating because the last of the nuns had left their college. Those nuns inhabit a ghost campus a few miles away, and cannot raise enough money to keep the buildings in good repair. The monks whose abbey is on the Benedictine campus, by contrast, were those who founded the major pro-life organization Human Life International. Benedictine College made history while my son was there, by sending seven busloads of students halfway across America to attend the March for Life in Washington. Adam, thank you for giving their 2024 commencement speaker the attention he merits, and I will speak gratefully of your poem below.

      Reply
      • Adam Sedia

        It’s heartening to see institutions like Benedictine flourishing. We need more of them. It speaks volumes that they even asked a man like Butker to speak for their commencement — his life and views were well known before then.

        And thank you for your comments below, too.

  3. Joshua C. Frank

    Thank you, Adam, for sharing this with us all. We need more people like Mr. Butker proclaiming the truth, and more people spreading his speech around as you’re doing!

    Reply
    • Adam Sedia

      Thank you! I don’t usually like to wade into headlines like this, but as I watched the speech and read more about Butker — especially watching how he didn’t back down — I really grew to admire him and thought I should say something. This one rolled right off the pen, too.

      Reply
  4. Julian D. Woodruff

    If he were an acafemic, he would have been chastised, occasioned some diclaimer (“the views of our speakers and faculty are not necessarily …”) kissed on the cheek by a few, then forgotten. But being a professional football–football!–player, he’s prsctically a candidate for president. Well, we could do worse.

    Reply
    • Adam Sedia

      And we have done worse — much worse. Perhaps it’s because the NFL isn’t where we expect to see courage like this. We’re used to pink uniforms and “taking the knee” (which I always thought was a sign of respect until I finally learned the sub-80 -IQ logic of it).

      Reply
  5. Brian A. Yapko

    This is a wonderful poem, Adam, which spotlights a heroic man. What is shocking is that it is now a heroic act for a Catholic man speaking to a Catholic audience to express his personal Catholic views. The leftist mob can’t abide the fact that he dares THINK these things and would have him canceled for it. What in heaven’s name is wrong with them? Well, actually you identify their “lovelessness” pretty well. It is indeed narcissistic, irrational hate and bravo to you for calling them out on it.

    Reply
    • Adam Sedia

      Thank you! You pretty much hit the nail on the head: normal people wouldn’t be bothered by someone expressing divergent views to a like-minded audience. Nothing but spite would make someone want to punish him for that. Perhaps I presume too much with my “armchair psych analysis,” but looking at where the criticism is coming from, I think envy over the loving relationship Butker has with his wife is the best explanation.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        The thing that offends the left is that Butker expressed his views OPENLY and WITHOUT APOLOGY. The left is laboring fanatically to establish what you could call a world-wide “public orthodoxy,” which for all practical purposes would mean that no one would be allowed to make any kind of public statement contrary to left-liberal policy and doctrines. In places like France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, and Canada, the job is pretty much finished. And what enrages the American left is that they can’t really impose the same thing here, except sporadically through private pressure and corporate regulation.

  6. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Bravo, Adam, for your contribution to the defense of Butker, exposing the venal vipers intent on destroying those who tell it like it should be.

    Reply
  7. Sally Cook

    Adam, what in Heaven’s name is wrong with love? Most sane people spend a good part of their lives searching it out !

    Reply
  8. Cynthia Erlandson

    This is so very true, Adam, and beautifully expressed.

    Reply
  9. Margaret Coats

    Your sonnet reads smoothly, Adam, but has an intricate structure ever returning the focus to love. This is exactly what the subject, a truly formidable football player, would want as his reputation. You have already indicated that in comments as well as in the poem. Excellent tribute to a true hero!

    Reply
  10. C.B. Anderson

    There is no crime so heinous as the crime of telling the truth. No one would even be talking about this were it not for the outrage of the incorrigible.

    Reply
  11. Daniel Kemper

    A needed poem about a needed stand at a needed time. What more can I say?

    Reply
  12. James Sale

    Beautifully written, Adam, and I particularly note the division of the sestet into two triplets: the separation (and balance) of the Love and Vipers.

    Reply

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