THE WAY OF WISDOM

for Nick Maxwell

To know what is of value, then to do
What most needs doing sets us right and true
Along the Way of Wisdom, rarely trod,
Though in our fond supposal blessed by God.

Why is it that this Way’s so hard to find,
And most of us poor travelers seem blind
And wayward, lost, benighted, dazed,
Stumbling in woods in search of trails unblazed?

Perhaps it’s that we seek with heads and eyes
What only hearts and souls can realize,
And Wisdom is a sensing more sublime
Than knowledge, less like reason than like rhyme,

     Whose graceful provenance, though mystery,
     Yet ends our rough-hewn lines harmoniously.