Poetry Friday. . . Sorta.

From Easy Essays (1977) by Peter Maurin, co-founder of The Catholic Worker Movement, a community concerned with issues of social justice and nonviolence:

Politics Is Politics

1. A politician is an artist
in the art of following the wind
of  public opinion.
2. He who follows the wind
of public opinion
does not follow
his own judgement.
3. And he who does not follow
his own judgement
cannot lead people
out of the beaten path.
4. He is like the tail of a dog
that tries to lead the head.
5. When people stand behind their president
and their president
stands behind them
they and their president
go around in a circle
getting nowhere.

Teachers Of Subjects

1. Our business managers
don't know how to manage
the things they try to manage,
because they don't understand
the things they try to manage.

2. So they turn to college professors
in the hope of understanding
the things they try to manage.

3. But college professors
do not profess anything,
they only teach subjects.

4. As teachers of subjects,
college professors
may enable people
to master subjects,
but mastering subjects
has never enabled anyone
to master situations.












disclaimer: I've had plenty of college professors who did
much more than help me "master subjects." And I've had
plenty who have not.