Humanist Voices in Verse: James C. Coomer

We’re featuring another new poem by James C. Coomer. He is emeritus professor of political science and former Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mercer University.  He has held faculty and administrations positions at the University of Houston and at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.  He is the author of several books and his collection of poems, A Lifetime of Yesterdays, is available through all ebook distributors. 

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to hnn@americanhumanist.org with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

 

A Seeker

The certainty of right is wrong to me,
A skeptic trained to question each resolve
To claim the answer and to, therefore, solve
The mysteries from which all others flee.
The certitude with which some claim the truth
Becomes a shield with which to fend off doubt
From those whose thoughts embrace a different route,
Though less inclined to hold their claim as sooth.
A basic rule for those who learn to seek
Is, answers are constrained by what is known
And what is known continually expands.
To claim that what is known needs no critique
Constrains the heights to which some thoughts have flown
To seek, not truth, but just to understand.
 

—James C. Coomer