Places of Learning
By Brandon Cropper
Copyright 2006
Colleges and universities are places of learning.
In it four years now, a degree I am earning.
Or that at least is the plan that is offered,
When through many courses I’ve duly suffered.
In classes taught by wise professors,
I’ll grow a beautiful plume of feathers.
Yet I perceive my feathers are pluck’d;
And from the nest I’ll soon be shook.
For things beamed at me by erudite teachers,
Require one’s faith, and are more fit for preachers.
They say my reality is made by perception,
Built by my mind - the perfect deception.
They tell me the world is all an illusion,
And I wonder how they escape the confusion.
In Quantum Mechanics this thought is treasured:
A thing isn’t real until its been measured.
But if this is so, which measurements show it?
If something’s unreal, how could anyone know it?
(Einstein said subatomic cause and effect,
Not understood now, may be someday yet.)
Picasso they say revolutionized art,
But I think his paintings don’t look very smart.
As painterly genius they offer us Pollock,
Who, drunk, smears his canvas in meaningless frollick.
ee cummings they offer as new poetry,
But it has no rhyme or rhythm or beat.
They give us James Joyce who penned Ulysses,
And tell us this nonsense is full of deep mysteries.
A mystery is right, but they haven’t a hint;
The question is how did this crap get to print?
They speak of the poor, downtrodden have-nots,
And say government healthcare is spotty in spots.
Western doctors don’t know the real human needs,
Alternative medicine they proffer - indeed!
Evolution, they say, hasn’t answered all questions;
Intelligent Design is the offered succession.
And these are the learned men of the time?
The feast of unreason! - on nonsense they dine.
God help us all to escape a Dark Ages -
In every field we need newborn sages.
As an atheist I know to not kneel and pray;
A rebirth of reason must bring back the day.
And so, my professors, I bid you adieu;
I’ll drop out of college and start my own school.
The End