Wisdom (and its elusive accumulation)

Poetry 1 Minute

  

I accumulate

Snippets and scraps of wisdom

Furiously copy and collect quotes

Try and grab on to ideas in hopes that they’ll stick.

But they drift and settle

In nondescript locations

And no matter how badly I want to hold on to their quality

They dry up, break down, and lose their initial splendor.

Rarely permanent

A wind change and they’re scattered.

I grasp at them;

But no sooner does the fist close ’round

Than they dissolve and fade from memory.

No sooner do I identify one

Than that leaf blows neath the rest of the heap

No longer remarkable, decipherable, identifiable

From the rest.

Further proof that 

All these – none of these –

Are mine to keep or hold as my own.

Neither wisdom, nor moments, nor leaves, nor snowflakes

Nor any other of the divine’s holdings

My property.

A steward is all

Whose domain’s graciously on loan

And hopefully, whose care and keeping            

Not wasted.

Published by Amy

Hmmm... I have no idea what to say. Bit of a loaded topic, this one. (At least from where I'm standing.) If you'd like to learn more, maybe read on in the "About" section?

Published

8 thoughts on “Wisdom (and its elusive accumulation)”

  1. Amazing poem. I ponder on this subject myself a lot. I think that this disolving of the wisdom you refer to is not so much the information disapearing but it forming itself in place into the bigger picture that your mind paints of the universe you find yourself in. Instead of that bit of wisdom/information being a single jigsaw piece, it becomes apart of the picture, and over time you stop recognising it as a single peice and instead see it as a part of the whole.

    I think if you are not aware that these bits of jigsaw puzzles are still there, that you can be fooled into thinking its lost its meaning to you.

    Amazing poem 🙂 it helped me to see that bigger picture again.

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    1. First, let me thank you for taking the time to comment; I so appreciate your willingness to enter in and think on it with me. And I think you’re definitely right about the morphing (“forming itself in place into the bigger picture”). My frustration, and maybe it oughtn’t be a frustration, is that clarity-like moments seem concise. More manageable. Quotes (the individual puzzle pieces that you spoke of) that capture a truth seem surer and more permanent than their inevitable entry into the larger soup. But you’re right. They’re not lost, but just make for a richer broth, and my efforts to control and hold on to moments is testimony to how far I still have to go!

      Thank you again for reading. And may we all do better in being freer to live the bigger picture, content for meaning as it reveals itself, savoring the moments therein.

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      1. See i definitely think you are understandimg the problem and helping me understand it further upon contemplation. The problem is that age old dilema that everything is temporary. This might be seem like a strange comparison, but heroin addicts explain their addiction by saying the first few times they do it they experience the most amazing feelings of euphoria, and everytime they take it after that is chasing the initial feeling (hense the saying chasing the dragon). I think the euphoria brought on through understanding can be very similar to this. Like a drug hit you get a great feeling that lasts only a while before wearing off, and then every bit of new information you search for after that is chasing the dragon. Searching for that feeling again.

        I think we should accept that all that is described in your poem is the natural way of things, and is inevitable. Peace is only possible when we accept this. Any attempt at disagreeing with the way it works only leads to frustration.

        I am enjoying discussing this with you 🙂 and appriciate you replying. I hope you’re enjoying your day.

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  2. Well spoken and so true. No matter how much you want to keep those kind of things or how much you want things to remain the same, when there good… they always change.
    Appropriate photo too, you know those rock stacks are not going to be there long no matter how much time or how much care was taken to do it. Such is life I guess, and such a big part of the part that I don’t understand.

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  3. Well spoken and so true. No matter how badly we want things to stay the same they always change.
    Very appropriate photo, you know those rock stacks are not going to be there long no matter how much time and care was taken to put them there or how badly we want them to stay.
    You need to do one of these on “time”. How it always seems to be against us. It always seems to go too fast, when we want something to last, or too slow when we are waiting for something to happen.

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    1. I love that you got the picture; totally what I was thinking. (And great shot, Reginald Vanorvis, as ever!) I actually have a little piece I did on time. I’ll have to look it up and see if it’s worth a second look…

      Thanks for reading, replying, and taking the time to do both. And may we embrace all these wonderful changes and samenesses too; lots of abundance in both!

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