DO NOT BE FOOLED
Do not be fooled by a mind that is clever
the mind is a circle
and we may meet en route
but as likely as not
we'll be like travellers
around the edge
whirling round in a space
that can only confound.
Comments
THanks Mark. You do point out a state of mind which usually does well in exams, therefore moving up in life . I was cursed with blind spots of memory , but have been blessed with creativity and am happy with that to be honest. Some people think poetry is "clever." Another thing to discuss I'm sure.
These lines had me thinking of the popular TV quiz show
"The Chase" in which individuals acting as a team seek to
outpoint an appointed "Chaser" with their answers to a
variety of questions. Those involved call it "clever" but
I wonder if having a retentive mind for a range of information justifies that level of esteem - or whether
"creative" is the true "clever"?
Thanks all for challenging and thoughtful comments.
elP
Where this came from I'm not sure but I thought of the shape of the brain as a starting point, roughly circular.
With poetry, I feel we should explore the illogical and give it a name and to cause discomfort sometimes. I understand your concerns, and perhaps all ideas are as it were on the perimeter and thus hard to delineate in terms of other's experience. Confound is like an epithet and feels frustrating I think!.
Robert, an image that maybe serves some illustration - thanks.
LCPTB
Hopefully, we do learn, but often cleverness is admired at a distance which becomes too far to travel for some.
I think one is a form of knowledge and the other a philosophical point.
Many thanks all, Ray
Nice - we're all skating round the ice rink of truth ;)
elPintor
Wed 3rd Aug 2016 00:44
Hi Ray,
Please don't be insulted but I keep getting a spiral or whirlpool (like the flushing of a toilet) when I read this. It is as if we could ONLY meet on the outside because the closer inward we get, the further our thoughts (machinations?) are from existing at all. Thus, maybe the clever guy is only clever in his own mind.
Oh, btw, I use the word "confound" regularly in my inner dialogue. I've found it quite useful in relegating the utterly illogical (or otherwise irreconcilable) unto its proper space.
elP
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M.C. Newberry
Thu 4th Aug 2016 16:18
Ray - if poetry is to be deemed clever - then a superior
example must surely be Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written In A
Country Churchyard": as relevant now as it was when
written.