13. Our Common Insanity

[And so, we reach the the final poem in the unknown poet's corona. That is, before the climax, which closes the ring by repeating the final lines of the preceding thirteeen poems along with the first line of the first poem.

It is worth repeating here that, according to his own remarks I've found in 2nd level footnotes to the Absolute Truth, 21st Edition, the unkown poet usually had no idea where the words would lead when he started with the first line of a poem -- or for that matter, even if it was the first line. As he wrote elsewhere, "There is no line which is really mine, except that I find it and find it to be fine..."]

A soldier of darkness AND a prince of peace?
A bringer of light as well as blood and gore?
Can human beings be both of these?
I'm afraid so, and indeed so much more!

The time has come, but that's not ´really true,
because, the time has always been -- here and now --
for all of us to learn to know what we really do:
How we maim and heal, love and hate and how
we twist the sacred dreams of all mankind
for silly goals worth a hill of beans.

We turn everything inside out only to find
we lost along the way what it all really means:

Our lives define our common humanity;
and thus we slip into our common insanity...