David RL Moore

Cloistered

by David RL Moore

Wednesday 6th March 2024 5:31 am

In a cloistered courtyard

of mosaic, tree and font

where bees and scholars long sparred

though not by way of want

The echoes of their learning

reverberate through time,

as if shadows slow returning

to close the circle of a rhyme

Their learning slipped like seasons

through the orbit of an age,

its lofty purposed reasons

were but theories in a cage...

the keys to which have rusted

and too long now lost their turn,

by those who were entrusted

that those who follow learn.

https://wolfgarwords.com/2024/02/28/two-poems-beyond-the-blinding-light-cloistered/

🌷(7)

◄ Oh Jerusalem, Why hast thou forsaken them?

Joy Riders ►

Comments

David RL Moore

Wed 6th Mar 2024 16:54

Thank you Landi,

Much appreciated. I agree with Carl, who couldn't?

The ultimate demise and extinction of man is inevitable and no more than we deserve. If we were truly concerned with our planet we would collectively cull ourselves.

I would not mourn the diminishment of men but I might mourn the waste of mankind.

Free range Chickens you say? I'm vegan, all my chickens are free.

Thank you for your comment it has a somewhat familiar tone, I'm sure we've met or might.

Am I responsible for a simmering thesis? if so please reference me.

David

Landi Cruz

Wed 6th Mar 2024 16:34

Free-range chickens are still chickens, is what I think.

I don't want to seem irreverent or dismissive, but it's quite a quandary you pose...

Carl Sagan said, "Extinction is the rule, survival the exception."

Maybe we've just been too busy trying to beat the odds imprinted on our primitive brains to come to terms with the opportunities before us?

I now have a thesis, though poorly formed, simmering in my mind...

Thanks for asking, anyhow.

David RL Moore

Wed 6th Mar 2024 15:38

Thank you Uilleam and John,

and thank you for the individual likes.

The subject of humans failing to learn from history and repeatedly returning to catastrophe is one I have seen addressed on WoL many times. I have seen Uilleam refer to it on more than a few occasions, sometimes directly and often indirectly in his subject matter.

It occurs to me and I'm sure to many others that we do not learn from history, indeed Georg Hegel coined the very phrase that the one thing history teaches us is that we do not learn from it.

There is a subtle difference between not knowing of historic events and that of repeating their failings knowingly. My scribble suggests an absence of knowledge/learning which is readily available rather than the deliberate ignorance of reapplying that which is already known. It seems ridiculous to me that we live in an age where we have open access to more information than we have ever had before yet we fail to utilise it or even make ourselves aware of it.

I suspect this condition has very much to do with the ego of men, each one believing he knows more or better than his predecessors. Of course this must occasionally be true and that is how we progress, but in the times we fail we regress each time a little further. With that in mind it may be that mankind will never move too far beyond the folly of individual ego even in the presence of knowledge and wisdom.

In that respect Uilleam you are 100% correct when you detect the element of sadness in the final verse. It offers little hope.

I wonder if at some point a universal criterea might be developed measuring what we know of outcomes in regard of historic decisions, their success or otherwise. Then with that resultant knowledge make informed decisions whose outcomes are more likely to be favourable to humanity. Of course all this would be dependent on consent and some form of democratic process.

I would imagine that any such process might evolve with the inclusive use of AI alongside human thought. This being the new revolution of our time would make it an extremely dangerous time in human evolution. It is though my personal belief that human evolution is perpetually in extremely dangerous times.

What think you?

NB: We all are the entrusted.

John Coopey

Wed 6th Mar 2024 08:23

Lovely stuff, David.

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Wed 6th Mar 2024 07:01

Thank you David.
I detect great sadness in your final verse.

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