The Price of Knowledge

If it is knowledge you seek you've come right
To the place where knowledge is begun. Sight
Takes man on a journey unlike any
He's ever been on; though he has been three
Times around the world this shall out do it.
If man seeks knowledge this is where it starts:
Where man seeks to understand many parts
In the life he leads, the varied hands he
May employ through different gloves: one of free
Masonry where he may enjoy brick's and
Mortar laid in the cracks and crannies: band,
Where he may realize his talent for
Musical apprenticeship; such a chore
Is by far the best, gives the most vigor
To it's champion: yet still there is light,
And through a prism is it trapped and seen
For what it was, and is, and could have been.
But if you truly seek knowledge my friend
You must clearly state what you do intend
To garner from the knowledge you seek;
Lest the outcome of your great search be weak.
So here is the knowledge, there are the tools.
Do not let them make of you both such fools
As have wandered forth with a shiny new
Diploma only to hold out their hands, through
Beggary earn their keep. Pursue a line
Of inquiry my boys, lest the price, fine,
The expense, or whatever else you call
It, cause you to fail in life, make you fall.
Tis better to earn a simpleton's keep
Thant to fall from the ladder of knowledge,
Better to be good at what you do hate
Than to live your life as some second rate.

                      The Price of Knowledge, (c) Luke Bennette, July 2012