Waking with Socrates
My hunger now to learn is deep and real,
much more than food could ever satisfy.
No dish or treat has quite the same appeal
It’s knowledge now that pulls and drives me high.
I never knew that Socrates once tread
The streets of Athens, living, breathing man.
I thought his name was something long since dead,
A way of thinking, not a human plan.
In Pompeii’s ruins, lives like ours appeared
They wrote, they traded, held their markets too.
And suddenly, it’s painfully clear and weird
How much I never took the time to do.
But now, at last, this hunger takes its place;
To search for meaning—fail, and still embrace.
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About this Poem
Waking with Socrates captures the quiet yet urgent awakening of intellectual hunger, the kind that arrives not with youth but with a deeper sense of self. It’s a reflection on missed opportunities, late beginnings, and the rediscovery of learning as a form of nourishment.
Inspired by the lives of ancient thinkers and forgotten cities, this poem speaks to anyone who’s ever wished they’d paid more attention—then realised it’s not too late to begin. It’s about the hunger for knowledge, the intimacy of history, and the poetry of finally caring.
