“I know that I know nothing.”
- Plato
A poem and a song. The poem, Sometimes, I ran across recently. I liked it and thought it worth sharing.
The song, Sometimes, I wrote a couple of years ago. It's on the Cheaper Than Therapy album. I think that most folks, when they reach a certain vintage, accept, as Aristotle said, that the more they know, the less they know. Life has a way of reminding us that all of the things we thought we knew, all the things we were sure of, might not in fact be the case. I guess the song is my way of getting at that, at least in my own head.
Sometimes
Sheenagh Pugh
Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss, sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen to you.
Sometimes
Robert Propst
Sometimes you're in between, now and not yet
Sometimes “maybe” is the best you get
Sometimes you find out, in hate and love
Exactly what it is that you're capable of
Sometimes you go out and get it, it's what you gotta do
But sometimes, don't you know, you let it come to you
Sometimes you never do learn to hit a breaking ball
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to know nothin' at all -
Sometimes you never see it comin', never see it go
Sometimes you learn a thing or two, you wish you didn't know
Sometimes you oughta know better, but you go ahead
Sometimes you say some words that sounded better in your head
Sometimes all the secrets are right there in the book
Sometimes the thing you need the most is the last place that you look
Sometime you gotta stop runnin', so you can learn to crawl
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to know nothin' at all
Sometimes a sure thing is a losin' bet
Sometimes you forgive, but you don't forget
Sometimes that's how it is, that's how it goes
Sometimes, on the other hand, you just never know
Sometimes you never get answers to the questions asked
Sometimes you have to wonder if you might just be miscast
Sometimes our heroes take a mighty fall
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to know nothin' at all
Sometimes you're robbin' old Peter just to satisfy old Paul
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to know nothin' at all -