Tenured Professors All

Though everyone's life is a book,

the great majority of those go unwritten

and even if they are set down, go unread.

We know little enough about ourselves

and not a thing about others,

which is why we blunder through life.

We are lucky beyond imagining

if we find a hand to hold along the way,

someone we can share the peril of the forest with.

We clamor for light and warmth

but when we move towards the fire

we see in the clearing ahead of us,

we do not look into the eyes of those

already gathered around the flame.

Maybe we're afraid of what we'll see in them,

for surely there is madness in some,

lust in others,

but there is courage, too,

and nobility.

They are all stories waiting to be read, as are we,

and we would be wiser for the time it takes us

to do just that, as would they,

for in knowing others, we meet ourselves

and learn that none of us are in this alone.

Brian C. Felder