New poem: "A Doctrine Uttered in Secret"

 

A Doctrine Uttered in Secret

 

“There is a doctrine uttered in secret,”

said the Greek philosopher Socrates,

“that man is a prisoner who has nor right

to open the door of his prison and run

away.” A young boy was out learning to ride

his two-wheeler, doing much better than

his mother expected, and he proudly boasted

to a neighboring woman out for her morning

stroll, “When I was big, I knew how to ride

my bike really good.” But “Shades of the prison

house begin to close /Upon the growing Boy,”

said William Wordsworth, in his poem Ode

to Immortality, catching a mystical glimpse

into this doctrine uttered in secret; and all too

soon, it will “fade into the light of common

day,” and the young boy will grow up

never knowing he is in prison.

 

Composed in Tiny Beaches,

Georgian Bay, Southcentral, Ontario

Thursday, June 26, 2025