DAMARIS CUDWORTH MASHAM(1659-1708) AND HER LITTLE PET JOHN LOCKE(1632-1704)

1

How strange that we refuse to see

that it was his time and his patrons,

the very need of recognition

as a philosopher, that made a

philosopher's work what it became

- that he is but a mirror for his time

and the laurel-wrapped footman

of those forgotten 'greats', who

gave him those laurels, paid his bills,

put him under a roof and gave

him his meals - or,

in the worst of times, let

him leave and escape

to phantasies beyond the bloody

bounds of stricken Earth.

2

Philosophy doesn't reflect Eternity

or some unbending skeletal frame

that has robed itself in the visible,

the only thing it reflects is its time

and the philosopher's life, as if in

a muddy pool on a cloudy day,

after rain has stopped.
Only seasons make
the difference.

28.11.2017