There Is No Point in Being Merely Clever

January 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, which falls on January 28. This year is The Year of the Rooster.

Today’s poem is a Chinese, or Lunar New Year poem for The Year of the Monkey, from the monkey’s point of view.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no point in being merely clever,

However much one likes to call the tune.

Each bit of insight leads one to forever,

Yielding thoughts that make the moment bloom.

Even so, some prostitute the mind

As they exchange intelligence for things,

Rewarded more than amply, but resigned

Over time to living without wings.

For me the mind is for perceiving beauty,

The glory and the radiance of being.

However cleverly one does one’s duty,

Each labor won is leisure lost for seeing.

Maybe one should use one’s mind for good,

Obliged by conscience to serve others’ needs.

No doubt. But while doing as one should,

Know where such self-sacrificing leads.

Each life’s a light that is for moments lit.

Yet one can spend them in the infinite.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/ther38.html. For more poems about the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/chinesenewyearpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Chinese, or Lunar New Year

January 23: Luck Is like a Tide Pulled by the Moon

January 24: The World Is Not Sufficiently in Order

January 25: There Are Those Who Shy Away from Being

January 26: Tolerance Is Hard to Tolerate

January 27: There Is No Point in Being Merely Clever