Renaissance Lament

Every day I want to be

A renaissance man

I want to do everything

The very best I can

But I run into a problem

Seeking the sublime

No matter how fast I may work

I soon run out of time

I want to be the poet

Like Edgar Allen Poe

I want to fly away with words

To places ravens never go

I want to be the sculptor

Just like August Rodin

To turn cold dead bronze

Into the thinking man

I want to be my intellect

Just like old Socrates

Who had his student Plato

Writing Phaedo at his knees

The renaissance man, you see

Does not trod the gentle trail

If he doesn’t do it all

He’s apt to think that he has failed