A New Apology For Socrates Poem by Mohammad Yousef

By Mohammad A. Yousef


In the shadowed halls of ancient thought,
Where wisdom's echoes linger and weave,
I stand, a humble seeker of truth,
With a heart burdened by the weight of ages,
To revisit a trial never quite resolved,
And offer a new apology for Socrates.

O, noble philosopher,
You walked the streets of Athens,
Barefoot in your pursuit of enlightenment,
Your sandals worn, not by neglect,
But by the fervor of questions unquenched,
Each step a dialogue, each breath a challenge.

You stood before the jury,
A gathering of men, cloaked in pretense,
Who wielded their ignorance like a shield,
Fearing your probing voice,
The sharp blade of your reason
That cut through the fog of complacency.

I seek to unearth your spirit,
To free you from the chains of their verdict,
For they condemned your love of inquiry,
As if truth were a crime,
And wisdom a venom to be purged
From the city's heart.

They mocked your method,
The art of questioning,
Yet it was you who dared to ask,
"Do I know what I do not know? "
You, the gadfly of Athens,
Stinging the slumbering minds to wakefulness,
You were not the menace they claimed,
But the harbinger of awakening.

In the agora, you stood resolute,
Embodying the essence of virtue,
While they clung to their shadows,
Willing to silence a voice
That echoed against the walls of dogma,
Yet your legacy, dear Socrates,
Is not bound by a verdict of guilt.

For every philosopher who follows,
Every truth-seeker who wanders,
Is nourished by the roots you planted,
In the fertile soil of doubt and inquiry,
In the gardens of skepticism and reason,
You live, a perennial bloom.

So let me stand before you,
In this modern agora of pixels and screens,
Where the search for meaning is both vast and shallow,
And offer a new apology,
Not for your sins, but for our silence,
For our unwillingness to ask, to engage,
For too often we settle for the easy answers,
The comfort of unchallenged beliefs.

I apologize, Socrates,
For the times I have let fear dictate my voice,
For the moments I turned away
From the unsettling light of truth,
Choosing instead the warm embrace of ignorance,
In a world that clamors for certitude.

Let this be a call to arms,
An invitation to the curious,
To embrace the complexity of existence,
To dance with uncertainty,
To honor your legacy by questioning,
By daring to dig deeper into the soil of our souls.

In this new apology, I promise,
To carry the torch of your inquiry,
To walk the path of dialogue,
To listen with intent,
And speak with courage,
For you taught us that the unexamined life is not worth living.

So here's to you, Socrates,
In the quiet corners of history,
Your voice still resonates,
A whisper urging us to seek,
To challenge, to confront our biases,
And in that pursuit,
We find our freedom,
Our own form of immortality,
A new apology,
Not just for you,
But for every soul brave enough to ask.