to weigh an anchor

was once
a matter of pushing
a capstan & singing a song

while on top of it
sat a man playing the fiddle
or the flute
or some other instrument of music

you & I have seen it in pictures;
our sons will say
that they wish they had seen it in pictures;
our sons’ sons will say it is all a lie
and was never in anything
but the pictures

and they will explain it
by some myth or the other

Found Poem from an essay
by Hilaire Belloc in First and Last

***************
once again

I find myself wearily
pointing it out
(as so often in the company of those
so consumed by the Modern Way
that they flog themselves silly
for seventy hours a week
for the sake of other peoples’ pockets)
that the Old Greek root
of the word ‘school’
means LEISURE—that is
being given the opportunity
to sit around making slow & silent
sense of the world
even unto the understanding
that making such sense
in such a way
will eventually result in
a quick rapidity of ratiocination

to train the youth into the Way of Work
by frenetic activity at machines
of all shapes sizes & function
in preparation for slavery
is to annihilate the opportunity
for the still moon-like growth of self