Degree In Life Poem by David Harris

There are some people
both old and young.
They’ve done something once
and the next minute they know all about it.
They say they have degrees in this and that.
In the biggest degree of them all
they have all fallen flat.
With the degree of life,
you first have to live it,
before you can get awarded that.
You have to suffer all
the indignations and pains
that there are there,
all the joys and the happiness,
triumphs can share.
You have to look into
the darkest soul
and know what goes on in there.
As for those who say they know it all,
those are the ones who have just stopped wetting the bed.
You’ll never have that degree
until you start living
and stop saying the world loves me.
Some say I’ve taken drugs.
What the hell has that got to do with it.
It only goes to show one thing,
how weak minded you are.
It isn’t a mark on the degree of life.
A degree of life measures
how strong you are in mind
and not how many
hallucinations you’ve had in your head.



14 December 2007