Where pondering should be done

Pondering should be done in quiet.
Where one is solitary;
on a walk, in the dark,
far from the limelight's torridity .

Deep thought must be like a prayer.
It does not seek attention or accolade.
Instead it seeks the inner self;
probes the pitch that others might evade


Discussion should be done among honest folk;
friends who have weathered many a season.
Together they grasp in the dark
hoping to pull a pearl from the briny depths of reason


But beware
discussion with strangers brings fear;
not jumping from cliffs of prior knowledge
into the freedom of the mind's fathomless mere.

With strangers, how one fears the leap
recite old verse and plagarize,
Teaching classics to our naive peers
What pageantry just to prove we're wise!

We have begun showboating,
putting our intellects on display
it's a competition of minds;
a game our hearts were never meant to play.