Eureka

Something I wrote while thinking too much about Plato.

They are not kings, but they should be.
Metaphorical kings, you understand, like
Socrates’ Philosophers,
craning always toward the light,
eyes piercing through the darkness
to free their shadowy counterparts of the lies within them.
They are the heroes, I tell you! Not the ridiculous body-weapons
who confuse freedom with self-glorification,
and who believe that the world would be better if only it were less
different and more easy. These unjust pseudo-heroes solve the problems
of “the world” (so they say) by leaving as many bodies as they save.
Are we not flawed, too?
“Yes!” Cries the Philosopher, thinking towards freedom.
“We are flawed, but capable of change, of light,
“of light! Do you not see it?”
And we, the masses, the world, do not;
we see only shadows and claim the Philosophers to be
mad, idealistic fools (but we do claim them “to be” something, do we not?)
But it matters little.
Meanwhile, we, “the world,” spit our flame and our condemnation;
our battle cry is “hate!” (although masked by freedom or religion, or whatever
else we think it necessary to spill blood for.)
But the Kings continue wait patiently,
writing and watching and waiting
to lead us into the sun,
and their battle cry is "Eureka!"

Author's Note

This deals a lot with Plato's cave allegory.

Reviews

[Angel Bird]

Wonderful piece. You are so right in every one of your thoughts. Yes non-philosophers will definitely think of writers and dreamers to be fools, but isn't it at some moments not better to live in a dream-world than in the often too cruel reality, and aren't writers and philosophers not often visionaries, people who see the trend and development before most others see them?!

Good elaboration of several thought provoking ideas. Well done. I like it very much.

[Kaye]

I really like the ideas behind this poem. I can't say that the ending was all that strong, but the idea of the philosophers and thinkers being "Kings" and "heroes" is a really powerful idea.
Very nice poem!

[Silent Kim aka mizmetap..]

Well written and creative. It fits into what I'm looking for in an old world kind of way. Thanks for entering my contest and god luck.