Arete

Once Phaedrus strove to manifest
That quality is good,
Is undefined, and so is best
Yet can be understood.

And then expanding more he eyed
That quality is not
A substance that can be described
Or skill that one is taught.

He queried of the classic and
Romantic views of "It,"
And found these realm of contrast stand,
--The torch was yet unlit.

The classic and romantic thought
He mused could be the same,
--Mere attributes of what he sought,
Each with a different name.

And then he did assimilate
That quality consents
The organism to relate
To its environments.

In time, his search of quality
Brought him to realize
Relationships bring harmony
To universal skies.

And to achieve the excellence
Of "This," he understood,
One needs a shrewd and common sense,
A gumption, if you would.

Maintaining a sound peace of mind
A person needs to see
And know that "stuckness" and its kind
Diminish quality.

* * *

Now Phaedrus took his dissonance
To Greek philosophy
Applying truth and circumstance
To that of quality.

He strongly felt the Sophist' slant
Was much akin to his
--That man was a participant
And not the source of "This."

Ideas arose and synchronized
When virtue lost its chaste,
And Phaedrus found and recognized
It wasn't pristine-based.

Bust virtue in the Sophists' sense
Was just a synonym
For quality and excellence,
And that was good for him.

Written by Tess Harvester
September, 1982

Author note: Phaedrus is a participant in Plato's written works about conversations that Socrates had with different people. The author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Eugen Herrigel, calls himself Phaedrus in his novel as he searches for a definition for what constitutes good writing. This poem was written after I read his book.