Wisdom

Learning helps us understand who we are 
Our capacity to grasp an idea
Gives us the ability to
Transform our environment
Our know-how used to good effect

To conquer is to try and
Learn the innards of a thing
Knowledge gives the impression
Of a quest won 
The disembowelment 
A sometimes haphazard affair
That only raises new questions

We often falter in our headlong rush
To acquire the elusive philosopher’s stone
Our theories often need reworking
As no scientific law can ever tame nature

We seldom appreciate what we have
And how much we have already learnt
We deconstruct and try to rebuild
A complex flat pack with no guidance
Only later do we realize
What a house of cards we did
So lovingly create 

The aura of a mystery is probably best
To have the keys to the gate
Is only a first step
In a sometimes perilous journey
Where hindsight can lead to great regret

A man is an inquisitive animal
A little as well as too much curiosity
Can kill a great number of cats
Or at least muddle the riddle
That is life

The ancients knew
The value of life is only known
When we no longer exist
Until the maker answers our questions
We can only understand using our own rules
Which are imperfect

Our basis for truth is naught but
A want for understanding of ourselves and
Our heritage
The need for a plausible lineage
Sometimes burdens man
His conscience an uneasy state  

We aim to predict the future
Superstition is still a reckoning force
In our often clinical and
Near mechanical approach to our seeking 
Faith is always discounted 
For the nirvana exists
Only in empirical facts 

Only when we pass a point
Do we know what was once a mystery
The horizon is forever moving
The world is not flat

Knowledge does not equate understanding
We seek out more and more information
Becoming anxious
We must have
A microscopic understanding
Of all we survey
The Higgins bottom or the big bang
Two problematic curiosities we have

We understand the limited time scale that is now
And wish at times to overload ourselves
We categorize
We try to simplify
We burn with a hunger bordering on fanatism

Our own past can at times be mysterious
Encompassing different shades of grey
Our recent past no less complex
Than a more distant history

Wisdom is a tool that if used wisely
Will bring clarity
Enhancing a process of revelation
That will open our eyes

Look
Listen
Learn
But above all
Live

allegorylifeprose poetry

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