I’ve been catching up on surfing my favourite blogs (it seems many blogspots were down yesterday) and I came across a ‘pome’ on Gummo’s blog. Even though I’m a “wise old wood god” who has seen the offspring of “first primeval calf”, to tell you the truth I don’t understand why it’s so important that it deserves a blog to itself; or perhaps I’m just so dense that it’s appeal (or message – it’s poetry, there’s got to be a message) is not immediately apparent.
In any case I thought I’d share a favourite poem that I found in 1980 while doing a management development program. Of course reading a poem at Mt Eliza is like farting in church and it went down like a lead balloon, but I think it explains the inability of politicians and public servants to propose truly innovative policy.
The Cow Path
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf path of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track
And in and out, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood gods laugh
Who saw the first primeval calf!
And after you’ve finished reading the whole poem, click onto the stories here and have a giggle at Teach Your Child About Politics –by Joseph Sobran.
Yeah, that Sobran thing was uproarious. Almost as funny as when he said The fact is that color can sometimes be a rough index of character” and that other stuff about “Zionists” he has on his website.
Till the villain left the paths of ease,
To walk in perilous paths, and drive
The just man into barren climes.
Now the sneaking serpent walks
In mild humility.
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in burdened air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
– William Blake (foreshadowing the Age of Howard)