Your complimentary articles

You’ve read one of your four complimentary articles for this month.

You can read four articles free per month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Poetry

At My Leisure

by Steven Kent

Leisure is the mother of Philosophy, some say;
If it’s true my future’s looking great. Oh
Man, with all this free time on my hands most every day,
Surely I’ll become another Plato.

Doing nothing all day long is quite a lot of work –
Praying that my genie in her bottle
Comes out quick and with a fairly firm-but-gentle jerk
Turns me to a modern Aristotle.

Fully rested, heavy thoughts all worked out in my head,
Then my metaphysics might endure. Us
Humans need a teacher; when at last I leave my bed,
I’ll be right up there with Epicurus.

Note: My muse won’t visit if I cannot hear her voice,
So I beg you please to be discreet. She
Takes an all-or-nothing stance and leaves me little choice
Yet I yield, that I may be like Nietzsche.

Leisure is the mother of Philosophy, you bet;
Humbly will I play my modest part. The
Peace and quiet I require might seem a lot, and yet
I need these if I’m to rival Sartre.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter-ego of writer, musician, and Oxford comma enthusiast Kent Burnside. His work appears in Light, Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, and OEDILF. Please visit kentburnside.com.