Socrates dies, sleep easy, dear Athens;
Socrates is found guilty
of asking questions,
one too many;
Socrates is subject to our justice
fair and just and open;
O Socrates dies, sleep easy, dear world,
for Socrates is found guilty
and condemned to die;
Socrates drinks hemlock
and
the questions die with him
and all our answers are safe
and we can blissfully go to bed
for all our fixed answers are safe!

Old Teacher
Lao Tzu wants to go;
he has had enough and he wants to go
to the mountains and to solitude
but they will not let him go

he arrives at the gates
and the gatekeeper says:
“Old Teacher,
you cannot go;
write all you know
then you can go”

“If I write,”
says Lao Tzu,
“you will make a text of it
though the description is never the thing”

and the gatekeeper says again :
“Old Teacher,
you cannot go;
write all you know
then you can go”


and Lao Tzu writes
so he can go;
and we have all these texts in the world
and cling on to words, words, words
thinking the description is the thing