Thus I Wrote

I told a joke
And it was misunderstood
I did not play social games
Like many others could
In talking from the heart
I was always second best
I live in my head
Focussed on my quest

I pushed the world
And the world it punched back
It cycled and it swirled
It changed from white to black
I surfed the waves of change
Til I landed on this beach
Now it feels so strange
The future’s slipping out of reach

How did we find
Ourselves on different sides?
What started as a line
Is now a chasm wide
I wish that I could hold you
Like when our love was new
But our demands they were too many
And our gifts they were too few

I asked why
But alone no answer came
Together the picture is empty
But at least we have a frame
Will our role be revealed?
Will we wait too long to live?
The lilies of the field
They just live and give

I drew an eight
When I wanted a Jack
But I’ll play the hand I’m dealt
Because there’s no use looking back
If hard work’s the platform
Then I’m ready for my luck to gain
Life may be full of storms
So I dance in the rain

I thought that we lived by God’s law,
Then Nietzsche said He was dead.
“We’ve been alone since the Big Bang”,
Stephen Hawking said.

Without a guiding supernatural law,
Man worked out how to survive.
He created his own morals and laws,
To control instinctual drives.

Indeed man may have invented God,
To enforce change and social control.
Societies use Him when He’s useful
But leave Him when He has no role

Man created a way to live,
Using virtue for co-operation.
Being good brings society acceptance,
Being bad brings isolation.

But good and bad are not universal,
They’re determined by what’s effective.
For the growth and the survival,
Of the individual and the collective.

Man is a calculating animal,
Judging punishment and reward.
He learns what’s effective,
For success in his own regard

Society hides the calculation,
It sounds too selfish and raw.
But balance is achieved in the collective,
Reciprocity is good for us all

So the collective knowledge of man,
Created by years of sacrifice and pain.
Is the true light of the world,
To ensure darkness never reigns.

It’s more than a brain full
What we experience as real
So we cut it up in pieces
And consume it piecemeal

We can lose sight of the wood
As we focus on a tree
So the head can be a prisoner
But the heart can still be free

Picasso painted the problem
Of looking from one side
His picture puts together
All the pieces as a guide

With reality taken piecemenal
Your destination may surprise
You’re blind to the whole picture
And blind driving is not advised

So we must be humble as individuals
And in the societies we create
We need to recognise our limitations
And have someone to question us in place