Fail

If I am to fail, let me fail
of too much reason rather than too little.

Amok

Love is desire run amok.

Preference

Preference is destiny.

New poems

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We prefer

We prefer the world we saw
when we were as we preferred to be.

Good

Good must vastly outnumber bad if it is to win.

Understanding

We understand little of the world, but the world understands less of us.

New poems

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Hearth Bread

Finally made a decent baguette-style bread (from this recipe).

On worship

Worship invariably diminishes the worshipper.

A similarly narrow purpose (Saunders)

This world-making via thinking is natural, sane, Darwinian:  we do it to survive.  Is there harm in it?  Well, yes, because we think in the same way that we hear or see:  within a narrow, survival-enhancing range.  We don't see or hear all that might be seen or heard but only that which is helpful for us to see and hear.  Our thoughts are similarly restricted and have a similarly narrow purpose:  to help the thinker thrive.

George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

New poems

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The absurdities (Szymborska)

I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.

Wisława Szymborska from "Possibilities"

Criticism

If everything can be criticized,
what, then, is the threshold for criticism?

Incredibly similar (Hoel)

The result of the academic pipeline is that contemporary writers, despite a surface-level diversity of race and gender that is welcomingly different than previous ages, are incredibly similar in their beliefs and styles, moreso than writers in the past.

Erik Hoel

New poems

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Regret

We spend our lives demanding that something happen, and then regretting most of the things that do.

Misfortune

My greatest misfortune was not to meet people like me.

Funny

Funny should be the prelude to true.

Snobbery

Snobbery is a sign of poor breeding.