seeing – radical druid

The Ears Have It: sonnet (envelope)

Published on July 8, 2025

Watch the eyes. It’s said they never lie,
and yet so much deception starts with seeing,
building illusions that soon end up being
so real to us we never question why
we do the things we do, and act as though
there is so little choice but wait to die,
imagining some future by-and-by
when life no longer simply tells us no.

Instead, we should rely more on the ears,
for what we hear brings in the world to us,
and even in an echo of a thing
its essence can be understood quite clear.
Behind all the cacophony and fuss,
there is a song we can all learn to sing.

08 Jul 2025

The Eyes Have It: Chaucerian madrigal

Published on June 13, 2025

If we can see a thing, we call those blind
who claim that it is nothing, just a dream,
and ridicule each other’s faulty eyes,

imagining the great truths that we find
are the exclusive provenance of “mine”.
If we can see a thing, we call those blind
who claim that it is nothing, just a dream.

But is it all just a trick of the mind,
a clever ruse of being that just seems
so real we use its spider webs for beams?
If we can see a thing, we call those blind
who claim that it is nothing, just a dream,
and ridicule each other’s faulty eyes.

13 Jun 2025

The ears have it: a curtal sonnet

Published on May 3, 2011

From eyesight, there are half a dozen words
that represent a myriad of lies.
The surface, then, is never proof enough;

relying on appearance is absurd.
It puts us in a world of slick disguise,
transmitting second-hand its show and bluff.

There are no such illusions from the ear:
with sound, we gather in, and become wise.
Discerning what is real is never tough;
the undertone is always sharp and clear
enough.

03 MAY 2011

Tag: seeing

The Ears Have It: sonnet (envelope)

The Eyes Have It: Chaucerian madrigal

The ears have it: a curtal sonnet