Marianne Moore Teaches Sunday School
Proverbs 9
Stolen waters are sweet, and as for bread eaten in secret
Well, don’t eat it, children, it will spoil your appetite.
Wisdom is a woman I know well
And of the ball she is not the belle
But she will do for the famous occasions
where on the high towers she’ll don her hard hat.
She’s not afraid to clamber onto the Wonder Wheel:
a “real thrill like you have probably never had before
—at least not at this great height!"
But to get back to sense and sentence
- Bobby and Betty don’t slouch like that
These chairs are made for backs straight as a baseball bat
Which must be true in order to hit true
And drive home from third base the stranded runner.
This phrase, here, is a lifelong lesson:
“the knowledge of the holy is understanding”
Although understanding, notwithstanding
Is sometimes itself hard to understand
But this you will find, as I have found,
Is sound.
“If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself:
but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.”
Both, notice, are solitudes. We all have that choice
Wisdom or mockery,
But in either case you’ll be lacking company
Essential company. Wisdom is a tough nut
and she doesn’t put icing on her adages
but tells you life comes without bandages.
I’d like to tell you that you should avoid
The foolish woman who sitteth at the door of her house
But I think some of you will become that dame
And others will marry her all the same.
And maybe we should ease up a bit on her
To make wisdom and mercy concur.
- Karen Chamisso
