If only I could be a Gentleman and a Scholar - poem

If only I could be a Gentleman and a Scholar.

My thoughts were full of sentiment and hopes and emotion,

so my intellect had to step in

and say focus.

Maybe the higher abstract mind

is not so bad,

Maybe I had been too rough on it.

If only I could be a Gentleman and a Scholar.

If I was only that

then at least I would be regular

and walk to the library

for my reading.

I would be in sweet form

and still have a lot of pleasure

I would live in Oxford

and study the Classics

I would enjoy all things Roman

And Persian and Greek

I would row down the river

and a book sometimes deliver

In the afternoon when I am free,

I would have crumpets and tea

I would rise very early

and never be in a hurry.

I would abide in history

and crack every mystery

I would pursue every whim

And sing every hymn

Every book I read would be long

and none of them wrong

My poems may or not rhyme

All of the time.

The only thing in my sight

would be the flowers

My only dream of the Moon.

I would be a Latitudinist

and also take up Sanskrit.

My English would gradually change

and before long I would speak like the Queen.

I would play the large pipe organ

and sing in the choir.

I would feel at home with the British

But still enjoy jokes set in Yiddish

Perhaps I should have never left college

I would take up computational linguistics

and focus on the mystics

DS Poem

April 13, 2018

Book Two

The Dust of Annihilation