Grooks by Piet Hein

does this book take me back. i remember being about eleven years old, snooping around in my sisters room, and coming across this gem. the only reason i began reading it was because the simple artwork caught my eye. then i later became enamored by the simplicity of the poems themselves. they were not only simple, but thought provoking as well. piet hein (12/16/1905 - 4/17/1996) was a danish scientist, mathematician, inventor, author, and poet. grook is derived from the danish word gruk which means a short aphoristic poem = simple and easy to remember. here is my favorite entry from this book, which is filled with dozens of poems.

MEETING THE EYE
You'll probably find
that it suits your book
to be a bit cleverer
than you look.

Observe that the easiest
method by far
is to look a bit stupider
than you are.