Internecine Wars Poem by Mary Champion

For millennia they have misled us -
the self-styled gurus, the pseudo saints,
fixated on the wrong dualities -
good versus evil; body versus soul;
male versus female; our god versus theirs.
But the dichotomy that threatens us,
the root of our vulnerability,
is the battle between our hearts and minds -
the gulf between reason and emotion.
Reason rises, promising Paradise -
displays its precisely prepared blueprints,
all aglow with optimistic hubris
to salvage humanity from itself.
But a single teardrop shed by the heart
is sufficient to frustrate all its plans.
The light touch of logical argument
is impotent - utterly defenceless -
against the arsenal of emotion
that its blind opponent brings into play.
Proud Reason, enfeebled by arrogance,
has only contempt for its challenger,
refuses to accommodate its needs
stands its inflexibly principled ground
and suffers one more demeaning defeat.
The harrowing lessons the mind has learned
have yet to allow it the resources
to resolve the clash between left and right,
balance ‘twixt the state and the citizen -
to nourish the heart and curb its instinct
to risk Hades in its hunt for of Heaven.