101 Books, Number 15

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

15: The Social Conquest of Earth, 2012, by Edward O. Wilson (1929–)

I love to read “my” science guys—

They write of earth and sea and skies.

My science education? Well,

The sad, sad stories I could tell.

Through reading I can compensate

For classes that were not so great—

And for my dilatory ways

Occurring in my schoolboy days.

And Wilson’s books I love to read:

He’s clear, precise—just what I need.

Some things I do not understand—

As foreign as a fairyland.

But Wilson, who, of course, knows ants

(As artists know those great Rembrandts),

Has opened up some worlds for me.

A promontory o’er the sea—

He leads me there, yes, hand in hand,

Shows me a kind of promised land,

A way to question all there is—

I read his books—feel like a whiz!

(Though I’m not.)