James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

The Ideal and the Real

(“Utopia and Terror Merit Badge”, 2010, original oil)

Ideal and real exist in opposition
Like two children on a playground teeter-totter
Two children who will grow 
To be completely different adults.
Idealism is the default of all infants
And is what all mature humans grow out of
Sooner or later, all too often much later,
Perhaps for some 
Not until the moment of death.
It feels good after all to want what you want
And even expect to get it!
But realism sees beyond such wants
To what is.

Realism is the philosophy of accepting 
Simply what is.
While idealism wishes for what can be
It may even seem noble
Yet is in-fact the ultimate intolerant view,
And taken to the extreme
Has led to the worst atrocities
In human history.
Does realism sometimes lead to atrocities?
Perhaps, but to the realist
They would just be necessity.

So idealism is the philosophy of infants and tyrants,
While realism makes do 
And gets along as best as can be.
But this doesn’t have to be a morose fatalism
As there is always a bright side.
There is always a new day dawning 
Somewhere at this very moment.
That isn’t idealism
That’s very real.

(1/30/25)

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