The greatest grif of all

by CD Richards

No parchments handed down by pious monks
can solve for us the greatest grif of all.
Stone tablets carried round in wooden trunks?
Pay heed, and you might just become a thrall.

The scientist can answer "how", not "why";
philosophers are often tortured folk.
Real answers don't drop down from up on high;
New Ageism is something of a joke.

Forgive me, if a truism I spout;
a paradox that wise folk know is true—
although we think we've got it all worked out,
the more we think we know, the less we do.

Enlightenment will come when we can see
the answer to the riddle, "Why are we?"

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Sonnet Poetry Contest contest entry

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates

Image: The Death of Socrates (Jacques-Louis David, 1787).

Today's word:

grif (n.) a puzzle or brain-teaser.

Other words of interest:

thrall: (n.) a person who is morally or mentally enslaved by some power.

truism: (n.) A self-evident, obvious truth.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

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What does it all mean?

A chapter in the book A Potpourri of Poetic Curiosities

The greatest grif of all

by CD Richards

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