‘Plain-speaking is not the post-modernist line -
No, we wouldn’t dream of being categorical with the truth -
But ‘It’s all relative’, and we lay it on the line
As the absolute, unconditional, indisputable Truth!’
‘Truth’, intone mystics, ‘is grounded when it resides
Only in an experience of a compelling sort:
Ultimate reality can’t be known from outside,
Can’t be put to the test - ours is inwrought!’
‘Truth,’ says the madman, ‘is the voices in my head:
Until I obeyed them, I’d have no reason to listen;
You must obey, too, for the sense to be comprehended’: -
For us to call him mad is begging the question.