The Best I'll Take, the Rest I’ll Leave

From revered folks, present or long dead,

And books they wrote that I have read,

I’ll benefit from the good I might see

Things true and of some worth for me,

But nothing I’ll believe in manner blind,

I’ll leave aside any wrong I might find.

No matter how great a book be thought,

And even if a person is respected a lot,

I won’t in their words blindly believe,

The best I'll take and the rest I’ll leave,

For blind faith's perils I well know,

It can drag one to depths most low,

Enslaving one’s soul, body and mind,

(That’s where I myself once did find),

Abandoning reason, and at a great cost,

One’s precious freedom in this way lost,

The freedom to think, do, say and be,

Subjected thus to someone else’s decree,

Being rendered in this way a slave unfree.

Oh how tragic it is, would you not say,

If in your life you can't have your way,

Having sold your own freedom away

By submitting to blind belief’s sway?

This myself I had once undergone,

But now I've most solemnly sworn

That never again shall I ever fall prey

To what in blind belief’s name they say.

Such belief, of every sort and kind,

I vow now to forever leave behind.