Jack Pelham

Great learning seems to be
Made of three things—
Each harder than the one before.

The first is in gathering
The bits and pieces of fact
That anyone can collect
Along the way though life.

The lie and the error
Can be hard to distinguish—
Particularly in their effects.

Funny that the latter is
Universally considered
To be the lesser of the two—
Both as a sin and as a threat—
Though, it seems,
It hurts us more often.

The great backlog of necessity has
Recently become my master—
As I might have reasoned it must
Back when I was doing the procrastinating
That set this present coup into motion.

—

You attack the statue,
Friend,
And the flag
And the street name,
As if lancing the very heart of evil.

It is not hard to disagree
With a perfectly good idea.

All my friends do it regularly!

If there is no perversion of doctrine
So morally foul
Or dangerous in its consequences
As to disqualify a human soul
From that Heavenly Jerusalem
For having believed it
Or taught it to someone else—

I could say that it’s just business
Between you and me—
That I corrected you
In good faith,
And you didn’t take it very well.

If people did not push back
Or dodge
Or ignore
Or defend
When they are corrected,
I think I would like them better.

To thank a friend but once
For an act of great kindness—
Or to celebrate to him but once
Some excellence in his virtue—
Seems as silly as the once-only
Humming of one’s favorite tune.

I have never found
So many good things to do—
And so much motivation to do them—
As when procrastinating about
Some other good thing that needs doing.