Those were the days my friend
I thought they would never end
From a friend or any ol’ library
Gave such pure thrill and delight
So much knowledge and wisdom
Was lying there to be discovered
Basking in those intellectual joys
Used to satisfy body, mind and soul
University life was so full of life
Young bodies and minds on the move
To change themselves and the world
By the sheer audacity of their thinking
Yet now as I approach my sixties
And having read more philosophy
Than perhaps was good for me
Life seems unnchanted and unmagical
Sans sense, sans meaning, sans joy
As one has realized all too clearly
The inanity of wisdom cast in words
Now when I pass the gates of a university
I do not have the urge to visit its library
Nor do I wish to pay a visit to any profs
Thinking hard and deep in their armchairs
All I can do now is recoil from life itself
Tying to understand what has no meaning
Is an errand that only fools undertake.
Know Thyself 