Proverbial (7) — Summary

Dave BontaCheerful

Ask me the time and I point to the sun.

An oak is a fine scholar of the ear.

Comfort took me to the temple Ease.

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Each of these three lines reads like an old saying, but none is quite the kind you've heard before. The first one answers a question about time by pointing at the sun. The speaker skips clocks and schedules and trusts the sky, which suggests a slower, more natural way of living.

The second line, "An oak is a fine scholar of the ear," is stranger. An oak is a listener, patient and rooted, taking in sounds the way a scholar takes in books. It invites us to think of trees as quietly wise.

The last line turns on wordplay: Comfort leads the speaker to "the temple Ease." Comfort and Ease are treated almost like people or places, and the line hints that too much of both could become something we worship. The speaker's tone is calm, a little wry, and the mood is quiet and thoughtful, asking us to slow down and pay attention.

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