The Decay of Reason

We are lost

In a world without sense.

Is there anything that can be done

To restore tact and order to their rightful thrones?

Through the use of the reasoning skills that we used to hold dear,

Have we made any progress in coming to some understanding of truth?

Has it all been a bitter and meaningless waste of our time?

I cannot help but question the worth of these things

In an age in which reason seems dead.

For the days of sound thought

Are now gone.


Oh, but wait.

What is this that I see?

It would seem that some hope has appeared.

Not acceptance of loss, no despair or defeat,

But a chance for redemption of order in Chaos's wake.

I can see in this vision a wondrous rebirth, a triumphant return,

An inspiring renewal of faith in the might of the mind.

So it seems that intelligent thought is not dead.

We can fight against reason's decay.

It is far from too late.

There is hope.

Notes on poetic structure: Though this poem does not make use of rhyme, it does make use of meter. The poem is built from anapests, a three syllable foot with the stress on the final syllable of each foot. The stanzas begin with a single anapest, with the second line in anapestic dimeter, the third in trimeter, etc, increasing until the seventh line, in which the process is reversed, with each line containing one less foot than the one preceding it until the single anapest at end of each stanza.