THE PHILOSOPHERS

By Michael Earls

The best of true philosophers

Are the children, after all,—

The children with laughing hearts

And the serious field and ball:

They have a bowl and bubbles,

And hours where rainbows are;

They find, if ever the sun is hid,

In every dark a star.

But, O, the sorry men that make

The wise books of our day!

They cannot smile athwart a cloud,

When black thoughts lead astray;

They cannot add a simple sum,

But talk like drunken men,

And shut their eyes to keep out God

When spring comes in again.

Far simpler than the Rule of Three

Are the laws of earth and sky;

Yet fools will muddle all true thought,

And pride will have its cry;

The banners with their deadly words

Go reeling on unfurled,

And sin and sadness march along

To the heartbreak of the world.