Sonnet 582

You cannot force a fancy on my mind;

Truth is the glass that shows reality.

For though pure logic may be parsed in kind

There still remains one actuality.

All human trust is subject to a gloss

That’s oft by act or accident contrived,

Through wit alone are misperceptions tossed

For sole by reason is a proof derived.

Where once man did believe the world was flat

And that the earth was center for the sun,

Such misconceptions here now make us laugh—

Still, Galileo’s sword was truth alone.

Reason be damned, embrace the common thought;

Burn heretics that flout the orthodox!

Loubert S Suddaby poems