NEMEROV 2014 #5

TOWARD WISDOM

      We are a dangerous experiment
      The Universe has curiously wrought
      To see if something so innately bent
      Can finally and happily be taught
      Through dangerous trial and error to grow wise,
      Which means to go beyond the cruelty
      And conflict of our past and realize
      Compassionate rapport and harmony.
      Like “sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh,”
      Our kind has yet to master harmony,
      And what might be high drama looks like farce
      Or worse—a universal tragedy.
           But still we may succeed and happily mend,
           If we take wisdom as our highest end.

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