It's hard to write a poem today,
Harder than when I was young.
I heard a song I cannot sing.
The more I know, the less I say.

And I recall there was a day
I sung more often than I spoke;
But now those songs to me seem weak.
The more I know, the less I say.

Hypocrisy! Just yesterday,
The flapping of my lips presumed
Too much.  By vanity consumed,
The less I know, the more I say.

Someday I'll be a man, I pray,
And will have found, like Socrates,
A humbleness before what Is.
The more I know, the less I say.