The rare reward

If you want the rare reward, choose to do the hard thing: it's no guarantee, but it improves your odds.

The voyeur

The voyeur is compelled to go where others are.

I am suspicious of any mind

I am suspicious of any mind that thinks that it only thinks concretely, and that only its concrete thoughts are of any value.

New poems

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Understand

Understanding limits possibility.

New poems

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Occupation

My occupation is opinion.

Accountability

There are so many people that I will not give of my time the time required to give them the time of day. I never agreed to pretend that everyone was of equal value, or that they had value simply by managing to exist, regardless of the nature of their thoughts or actions. I have no problem whatsoever saying "Hitler should not have existed, and once he did exist, that most undesirable situation should have been corrected. Preferably at a cost of less than 85 million lives."

Everyone, surely, is born with an equal right to a place on this earth and access to its resources and opportunities, but it is absurd to claim that that right is inviolable and cannot be ceded. By all means, err on the side of tolerance, of accommodation, of forgiveness, but don't shrink from holding people accountable, to a degree commensurate to the offense. Without accountability, all is chaos.

New poems

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New poems

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Could it be

Could it be that all preference is love, and all love, preference?

Particularly

The particular is always peculiar.

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Fancy corn dog muffins

The Stillwater Review

Volume 14 (2024) of The Stillwater Review with my poem "The Etceteras" is out!

New poems

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Most of the pain

Most of the pain in life is born of the discrepancy between expectation and realization.

Being open

Being open to the surprising does not mean having to accept the preposterous.

Easy

It's easy to offer salvation when you invent the threat.

New poems

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