A PRAYER FOR WISDOM

          Let’s pray we Homo saps are growing wise
          Because we’re overdue to realize
          What is of greatest value to the world:

          Those latencies within to be unfurled
          We finally learn to use to benefit
          The Earth—as sanity makes requisite.

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THE GREAT TURNING

     Our human race now squanders and degrades
     The gifts our bounteous planet freely gives,
     Oblivious of how its splendor fades,
     A threat to every wondrous thing that lives.

     Though the most promising of every kind,
     The pinnacle of evolution’s trek,
     We “Homo sapiens” have yet to find
     The wisdom to avert a global wreck.

     Let’s hope our present adolescent stage
     Will be outgrown and new sagacity
     Evolves to mollify our mad outrage
     So we may learn sustainability—

          Or better yet, that we may learn to nourish
          Attitudes that make our planet flourish.

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OUR HUMAN GOAL

               We study to appreciate
               What makes our species truly great,
               Which is our aptitude to learn
               What is of ultimate concern:
               Not merely how we might survive
               But how we’ll fully come to thrive,
               For only we may realize
               Our latent gift for growing wise:
               Discerning what to value best
               And setting that above the rest,
               Since that alone will make us whole,
               Leading us toward our human goal.

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WORTH

                     If you are to be wise,
                     Then you must realize
                     What is of greatest worth
                     In service to the Earth,
                     For Earth’s large enterprise
                     Is making our minds wise.
                     What then is wisdom’s worth?
                     To bring us mirth, not dearth.

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NEWSHOUR

AN EXERCISE IN MONORHYME

        The NewsHour team reports the day’s events,
        A nightly task of trying to make sense
        Of situations trifling or immense,
        Sometimes concerning national defense,
        Though typically on topics less intense:
        Huge issues they will carefully condense
        To simplify what at first glance is dense,
        And in and hour it seems they’ve put a fence
        Round the diurnal riot of events.

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A VALENTINE TRIPLET

                      This day Saint Valentine
                      Sends everyone a sign
                      That loving is divine;
           
                     Thus lovers celebrate
                     The opposite of hate
                      But what makes each a mate:
            
                      It’s kindness in the heart,
                      Now pierced with Cupid’s dart,
                      Which means they’ll never part.

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MUSE ABUSE

     In poetry the form collaborates
     In partnership with your own native wit
     By opening unpremeditated gates
     To what surprisingly is meet and fit.

     Because of rhyme and meter’s strict demands,
     Your mind’s compelled to figure out new ways
     Whereby your narrow consciousness expands—
     Fresh meter comes, and bright ideas blaze.

     That now so many poets have cast off
     What they have found too onerous to use,
     Exulting in their freedom, and now scoff
     At formalists, just disrespects the Muse,

          Who says that music is the lyric’s heart,
          And those who leave it desecrate the art.

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FREE FORM

  There is a reason for these metered lines
  And for each one’s concluding in a rhyme;
  Though some begrudge such cumbersome confines,
  There’s magic in this ancient paradigm,

  Which proves, though strict, to be provocative
  In calling forth what never would be thought
  And finding out where occult memories live
  From which surprising images are wrought.

  This tum-te-tum casts a beguiling spell,
  Inducing with its beat a kind of trance
  That guides you toward unthought material
  Stoking and fueling your train of thought’s advance.

       That such constraints should lead to liberty
       Is paradoxical, a happy mystery.

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SONNET LITE

     A sonnet such as Shakespeare often penned
     Most typically explored the topic Love
     As if to help the poet apprehend
     What that mysterious mood consisted of.

     But even he, and many now hereafter,
     Who practice this old art of sonneteering
     Examine topics both more sane and dafter,
     Sometimes reviling, other times revering:

     Which is to say, this multipurpose song
     At times may make the very welkin ring,
     While other times will merely plod along,
     As this one does, with little joy to bring,

          Except it hits its marks and keeps its beat
          Earning no higher accolade than “neat.”

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COLLEGE: A WISE CHOICE

 
If “wisdom is the highest aim of life and of higher education” (as one notable authority on the subject of wisdom has declared*), what then is wisdom, and how may we attain it, particularly by means of a college’s curricular and co-curricular programs?

While “college is for knowledge,” as purveyed by its numerous departmental disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities; knowledge is not wisdom.  Being well-possessed of information, ideas and theories does not ensure one’s aptness for discerning what is most valuable and bringing that value into being—which is the essence of wisdom.

Wisdom is not a passive state of contemplation or saintly serenity; it is action devised to bring worthy aims to fruition.  To know what is of greatest worth and to know how to realize that worth is to be wise.

Therefore, students will rightly pursue their collegiate education expecting that every course will inculcate them in some valuable enterprise, some subjects and skills that will make them better able to comprehend the importance of such studies and abilities—not only to appreciate them but, if possible, to practice them.

For instance, to appreciate Shakespeare’s poetical and dramatic artistry is to comprehend its value; but to compose a sonnet in his style and to do so well is to add value to the world, to enlarge its wisdom if only by a little.  And so it is with each of the designated arts and sciences, from art history to zoology: each can provide valuable understanding and promote valuable enterprise in students—thereby enhancing their own potential worth in the world for wising it up.

What higher purpose could a human being have than to contribute to the thriving of life on Earth?

One current name for such an enterprise is “the creation of a global wisdom culture,” a notion that summons all human beings to become “cultural creatives,’ persons devoted to developing life-ways that respect and protect the flourishing of Earth’s biosphere and promote the advancement of human values and practices so as to evolve ourselves intentionally beyond conditioned inclinations to harm and dominate others.  Rather, we must learn to respect others and revere all human beings’ potential to grow wiser: more knowledgeable and discerning, value-driven, capable and effectual.  To do so should be the highest aim of education, higher education in particular.
 

 

WISING UP  

                    If you are to be wise 
                    Then you must realize
                    What is of greatest worth
                    In service to the Earth,
                    For Earth’s large enterprise
                    Is making our minds wise.
                    What then is wisdom’s worth?
                    To bring us mirth, not dearth.  

           
_____
*Copthorne Macdonald: http://www.wisdompage.com/rollinstalk.html

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NEMEROV 2014 #4

IMAGINE

      Are we the highest being that has come
      to pass in all the cosmic vastness’ scope?
      It seems improbable that we’re the sum
      of evolution and its greatest hope.

      Surely some wiser creature, far advanced
      beyond maniacal proclivities,
      with reverence and foresight much enhanced,
      has grown to be enlightened by degrees.

      Though we as yet can but imagine that
      and hope in time to encounter such a breed,
      which some supreme progenitor begat,
      let us, meanwhile, in that same way proceed.

           Imagination in itself may show
           the very way a wiser voyager would go.

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MY UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

    What do you do about the Mysteries
   That every human being must confront,
   Since they perpetually perplex and tease,
   Sending us on an existential hunt?

   Where have we come from, and why are we here?
   Do we have any purpose to fulfill?
   And when we’re gone, do we just disappear?
   Yet while we’re here, how free is our own will?

   Have you found some philosophy or creed
   That answers urgent questions such as these,
   Addressing every existential need
   And opening up the Cosmos with its keys?

        But wait—don’t say—I’d rather speculate:
        I’d rather stay uncertain of our fate.

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OUR PROJECT

     How wondrous is our opportunity
     Here on this living planet we call Earth
     To contemplate the ways that we can be
     And celebrate the glory of our worth.

     Although in countless ways we’ve failed to rise
     To our potentiality and done
     Horrendous deeds, we may in time grow wise,
     Before the final setting of our Sun.

     What is it to be wise?  To realize
     What is of greatest value, making sure
     Our every law and policy complies
     With what will help Earth’s enterprise endure.

          With so much yet to learn and comprehend,
          Let us agree: our project must not end.

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WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR?

What higher purpose could a human being have than to contribute to the thriving of life on Earth?

One current name for such an enterprise is “the creation of a global wisdom culture,” a notion that summons all human beings to become “cultural creatives,” persons devoted to developing life-ways that respect and protect the flourishing of Earth’s biosphere and that promote the advancement of human values and practices so as to evolve ourselves intentionally beyond conditioned inclinations to harm and dominate others.

Rather, we must learn to respect others and revere all human beings’ potential to grow wiser: more knowledgeable, discerning, value-driven, capable and effectual.

To do so should be the highest aim of education, higher education most especially.

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SELF-REALIZATION

      Assume you have a Self to realize,
      Some Essence that is truly who you are,
      Which, if you don’t, you never can grow wise,
      For it is your eternal guiding star.

      How then, within the roil of busyness
      And everyday affairs is one to find
      Surcease from worldly worries and duress,
      Growing in time more spiritually aligned?

      My way is to arise from bed at dawn
      Then sit in the dim light in readiness
      To write, waiting for ideas to spawn,
      A practice that meets usually with success,

           And thus it is my wiser Self can guide
           Me toward what only Essence can confide.

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