Five Blind Men - David Roth

Walking in the woods one day with five blind men a-following

We came upon an elephant just resting in a glade

«What have we here"the blind men cried, for none had ever seen one

«An elephant"was my reply, 'just sitting in the shade»

«An elephant"I did explain «is big and friendly, gray and slow

An elephant does not forget, and sprays things with its nose»

Before I could continue on, the five blind men had found it

And moving with their hands and ears had made their way around it

The first blind man had grabbed its leg and proudly he concluded

«An elephant is like a tree, it’s strong and firm and rooted»

The second blind man said «Hold on, that’s not what I have here»

For he was feeling round the tusk and called the beast «a spear»

The third blind man was in the front, clinging to a trunkly nose

«It's neither spear nor tree"said he, «an elephant’s a hose»

Around the other way beside a giant ear, the fourth blind man

Stroking, found it wide and flat, and much more like a fan

And lastly bringing up the rear, the fifth blind man did grab and grope

And playing with the tail declared the elephant «a rope»

Just right then our gentle friend, not used to such attention

Got up to stretch and move a bit, and turned a ways around

But when he sat back down again, the parts were out of order

And each blind man was feeling parts the other four had found

The first said, «Wait, what was a tree now feels much more like a spear»

The second said, «That's what I thought, but now a hose is here»

The third who thought he’d held the hose was fondling now a fan

Which, incidentally, was a rope now to the fourth blind man

The fifth blind man who’d held the tail was now beside a leg, you see

So what he thought had been a rope was suddenly a tree

And all at once the five blind men began to laugh and shout

And realized that each was right and joyfully stomped about

«An elephant», they sweetly sang «Is all these things

And much, much more»

The sum of which is greater than the parts we’d felt before

It just depends on where you stand"they said, and then they turned

To thank the gentle giant for the lesson we had learned

So off we went, the five blind men and me, out in the wood

But this time I was following them, as humbly as I could

For they had blessed me with a gift, a sparkling truth revealed

Whatever you might think you see

Depends on where you stand

And how you feel