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boy philosophers I have known
Zeno,
Thales
Kung-zi
fools!
smug
fools
fantasists
and
some fanatics
the
earth is a pillar
and
everything flows
don't
leave your parents unburied
yeah,
right
Plato
filthy
liar
enemy
of the people
Socrates
impersonator
illiterate
know-it-all
Aristotle
slipshod
of guesses
know-nothing
all
opinion
sainted
Augustine's city sucks
Aquinas
forgives
the rapist
condemns
the onanist
(then
who's the wanker?)
Descartes
–
rip
your head off
see
how that goes
Kant
anal
retentive
racist
bastard
Marx
narcissist
would-be
Nostradamus
Nietzsche
mad
as a cut snake
Kierkegaard
one
trembles to say
Bergson
was
a laugh
Heidegger
Nazi
Nazi Nazi
Sartre
was a little gruff
kept
the faith, but badly
yet
I am glad
to
have thought so far
Sappho
help me!
there
are magic words
like
Maitreyi, Hipparchia,
Hypatia
and Hildegard,
Cixous
and Kristeva
and
Irigaray
I
am under their spell as well
but
the old boys' curse is stronger
one
feels bad about this
but
to make amends?
one
could offer oneself
at
the pet shop
for
a cat toy
like
Montaigne
really
it's hard
to
know what's to be done
Ockham's
razor
shaves
just a little too close
but
stand out of my sun still
would
you?
philosophy's
future's so bright
I
must keep the mind clear
of
everything cognitive
I'm
with Bachelard
up
in the attic
building
my cubby
lost
sifting through Jungian junk
all
types of the Ark
set
sail
I'm
with Merleau-Ponty
in
the float tank, horizon biding
with
a full-bodied red
touches
the edges
Epicurus
kicked back
in
the garden
gimme
a bit of that carpe diem
I
know who holds up half the sky
who's
tugging off the covers
but
a thousand plateaux
are
waiting
and
boys like me
well
you know
we
all like
an
adventure
So witty! And what about Spinoza? ( by the way many French names!)
ReplyDeleteInteresting!
ReplyDeleteah ...hmmm
ReplyDeleteSpinoza made spectacles of himself
(or ... Spinoza was a poser)
?
Wonderful essay poem .... I really love Bachelard's stanza seems so right
ReplyDeleteMany other (the big guys) will be left out but what of Pythagoras sitting there in the foregound of Raffa's sermon ?