Saturday, September 13, 2014

The heart of wisdom

The heart of wisdom                                                                                

A popular version I browsed in the bookstore
of the Tao Te Ching, urging everyone and telling how

in tranquil, flowing poetry to become sages.
Don’t know if I could or would want to become a sage.

Better to be wise than foolish but, sage or fool, both
essentially ignorant – like learning to favor a bruised foot

or determining the easiest route through traffic home.
The heart of wisdom is to discover ourselves,

the fallacies of our basic assumptions,
carve a niche from which we might calmly

view the world, not for the sake of comfort,
not for any advantage; not to seek a dependence

upon wisdom in lieu of grace and surrender.
The Old Man put down the Nameless pen to paper

best he could.  Reading his now gilded words
standing in the self-help aisle of Barnes & Noble.

O child of God, foolish to judge what belongs
where, why and to whom concerning the Way.

                         

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