Talented, admired, famous, smart-attired,
Earning well;
In politics, the clergy, teaching, university
Professors, film directors:
Whew, it sounds as if they guide the masses.
Intellectual jackasses leading, bleeding us, that’s all!
I am not cynical. It’s just
That I have learned to trust the prayer
That I can get to someplace higher
Than the plane I stand on here.
High among my fears, I fear self-satisfaction,
Where, in intellectual molasses
I’m convinced I’m something great.
When I doubt myself, that’s best,
Standards taking time to ripen;
Values forming, shifting, changing.
If discomfort is a test
And one’s content to never rest,
Mediocrity can be a phase short-lived.
Discontentment seems to me
The exit sign, and mediocrity
No absolute.
There’s hope, I hope.
So while my eyes are taking note
Of how the world is shaping up,
In the hope that from what’s been
Will rise a better thing –
If mediocre people really always are their best,
I have to wrest my case from all that is,
And go on living.
Mediocre People Are Always At Their Best 12.2.1998/revised for the 3rd time3.10.2016
Our Times, Our Culture II; A Sense Of The Ridiculous II; Nature of & In Reality; Revelations Big & Small;
Arlene Corwin
