Sublime Common

To summit was quite the climb

The vantage was quite the view

A taste of omniscience

I saw far beyond

I saw past folly

My horizons far distant

All knowledge in an instant

In my tower of wizardry

All magicks were mine

Conjuration and alchemy

Prestidigitation and sorcery

Away from all things mundane

Untainted by the inane

Solitude sharpened me

Study made all things for me to see

In my cave I could divine

All secrets that would be mine

The voice of the universe with my mind conversed

Adept at prose or verse

But after clarity, there was nothing

After precision, no decision,

could be made that could show me joy

                despite the faculties I employ

The mundane, the naïve have no burdens of knowing

Knowledge offered no power for averting

                futility

Down at the valley, the lilies are near

It is outside the tower that rainbows appear

Among the serfs and rabble, magic exists raw

Among stones and gravel among mortals I saw

There is greatness in the grass, in falling petals, and shattered glass

There is beauty that defies my ken

And to futility my soul I open.

Keats

January 30, 2016