Heretics and Hypocrites

Tonight I’m toasting all my teachers
Professors, poets, lechers, leachers
Sycophants, pedantic preachers
Hierophants, romantic seekers
Anglophiles and phobophiles
Troglodytes and crocodiles
Extropians and erudites
And neo-Luddite acolytes

Heretics and hypocrites
Bodhisattvas, lunatics
Self-deprecates and prima donnas
Avatars and sweet apsaras

Con men, cool cats, petty crooks
And every page in all the books I’ve ever read
And every word that I’ve heard said
In writings sprayed on every wall
I’ve gleaned a gem of truth from all
Of love and life and war and strife
Of cruelty and kindness
Philosophy, psychology
Of vision and of blindness
Of history and mystery
Of magic, mirth and myth
Of consequence, causality
Of height and length and width (and warmth, and breadth and depth…)

Heretics and hypocrites
Bodhisattvas, lunatics
Self-deprecates and prima donnas
Avatars and sweet apsaras

The rarity of clarity, equality, disparity
Timidity, temerity, lucidity, turbidity
Enmity, indemnity, dignity, divinity
Gravity, depravity, brevity and levity

Why every reason needs its rhyme
Why the seasons change in time
Why we shine and why we burn
Simply to live—to love—to learn

To all my teachers thanks for your insightful caring, examples, mistakes, your truth and your sharing.

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