That there is much I don’t see through my blinkers.

From Sonnets From Later Life 1981 – 1993. 24 March 1992 by Kenneth Boulding

On Reading A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists

by Kenneth Boulding

Reading about the life and work of thinkers,

Even within the walls of my own field,

I must to a rather sad conviction yield,

That there is much I don’t see through my blinkers. 

And even though some thoughts out there are stinkers, 

The knowledge that within my mind is sealed

Is such a tiny part of what’s revealed

In all five billion minds. But my mind tinkers

With an idea that only what is true 

Is good. Yet Error skillfully embeds

Itself so quickly in so many heads
That there is much I’m glad I never knew,

And I can add, perhaps, a little whine,

That so few other heads know what’s in mine!