What can we do to change the world?
We can toil and labor until we’re old.
We can work towards power, might and wealth,
to eat like kings, drink to our own health,
raise an army, conquer the land,
breed a family with descendants like sand.
We can pursue our passions, or notoriety,
or be the butterflies of society.
We can write to solve life’s mysteries,
or research and transcribe the histories,
or quest for knowledge; go to college,
squander our plunder, all our coinage.
But what we can do that will have the greatest effect
is actually the antithesis of what we’d expect.
Don’t worry, what you need will be provided,
Your life is not your own, not matter what you’ve decided.
The last be made first, the first be made less
In being a servant you will find your success.
-
Posted by Zach @ 1:54 am
11 Responses
February 6th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Very well done, Zach!
February 6th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
beautiful.
February 6th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
This makes me happy
February 6th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
This isn’t inflammatory. Come on, I read this blog to be shocked. You’re letting me down.
[I liked the poem.]
February 6th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Good poem, man. I love it!
@Andrew: I’m about to drop some stuff here pretty soon that should spark some disk-gaussian.
February 6th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
How ’bout this, Andrew?
You are all living lies.
Everything you do is a guise.
So give away all your stuff,
Throw it off the bluff.
Go be a hermit,
maybe then you’ll learn it.
Fast all the time,
Pray with the fervor of nine,
Ask God for a sign,
Then wait all the time.
Then maybe you’ll get into Heaven.
Inflammatoy enough? Please argue the biblical accuracy of this poem.
teehee.
February 6th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
‘That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
‘Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
‘Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
‘Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men,
‘Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again!
You! Hypocrite reader! My likeness, my brother.
Argue the Biblical accuracy of that.
(okay, so I didn’t write that, but that’s just details.)
February 6th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
@Andrew: Haha nice. We should do a full theological expository breakdown of the poem.
February 6th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Andrew! You would quote The Wasteland. Well played.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Andrew, that quote is obviously about being reborn.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:22 am
All of Eliot is about being reborn.