Lesser Known Philosophers.

Much of the wisdom in this poem was heard nearly fifty years ago, over many sessions in an isolated village pub,  in the north of Suffolk.   All the wise men quoted are no longer with us.

Some taste wisdom in another tongue

digesting Descartes ‘Cogito ergo sum’*

or  Nietzsche’s more demeaning fear

‘Der Mensch ist der grausame Tier’.**

 

In my Autumn, on this warm December day

I recall the prophetic words of ‘Pig Cheese’

that caused the lowering of pints from lips.

‘Green Christmas—Fat Churchyard’

 

Ernie knew the complexity of existence

defiantly roaring of this endless riddle

along  village roads he was paid to sweep

‘It’s not just two sides, there’s the middle’.

 

I have mapped that construct in my life

merged it with Bert’s repeated advice,

for use when dealing with anything weak,

‘Bend it bear — crack it break.’

 

But the key to existential trauma

was heard in ‘Tiddlers’ reactive  mantra:

‘It stand where I left it—do it don’t it did’.

Ephemeral  reality, succinctly stated.

 

 

 

*  I think, therefore I am

**Man is the cruellest animal