Step Into The Light (Poetry and Prose Journal)

On Wisdom (Poem)

The sequestered student, 

Searches uncounted volumes,

Immersed in the immensity, 

Of so-called sooth-sayers

Academians aloof, 

Philosopher kings,

All of them Peddlars of knowledge,

Issuing verdicts from an Ivory Tower.

Is this the true Well of Wisdom?

These- their condemnations:

Ignoble ignorance is trumped,

By the pure power of reason.

All their trust in truth,

Science their sacraments, 

Reason their religion,

The faithless follow a secular God.

Cold compassionless calculation,

Is but one brand of Wisdom.

The stalwart soldier adventurer,

Survives through rubble and ruin.

Wrapped in worldliness,

The experience of expertise evolves,

To turn the troubled knight, 

Into a gray hero of fortune.

The dealer of death and life, 

The survivor accountable for action,

Is Wisdom in the weight of a blade?

Here- his valorous vainglory and virtue:

Actions speak louder than words.

Princely practicality prepares,

And the cautious soul is spared.

He trusts only himself,

The world is a peach for the plucking,

Neither fully formed of night or noon,

Soldiers' souls are frozen at dusk or dawn.

They will discover a Warrior's Wisdom.