Everybody sing!

These are a few of my least favorite things:

Authoritarianism, tribalism, anti-intellectualism, magical thinking, and violence.

New poems

+15

The madness

When madness goes viral, stand firm, stand sane, even if you must stand alone.

Distraction

In the face of annihilation, there is only one recourse: distraction. This goes a long way toward explaining both our psychology and our society.

What isn't

What isn't natural is trying to define something as natural or unnatural.

Late Utopia — right on time!

FedEx just dropped off my copies.

A success (Dylan)

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

Bob Dylan

Always more

There is always more to say
but there is always more still to not say.

Update (Hoagland)

So much depends
upon

a red multi-
corporation

glazed with
tax credits

beside the white
politicians.

Tony Hoagland, "Update"

The problem with happiness

The problem with happiness is that it is not unimaginable.

Escape (Hawkins)

The only real escape from hell is to conquer it.

Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

The line

Incantation or calculation,
the line doesn't just display,
it performs.

New poems

+15

Late Utopia

My new poetry book, Late Utopia, goes on sale today at Amazon.  This book contains slightly longer works than the very short poems of my recent chapbook (still available—The Animal Commitments).  If you'd like a print copy of my work to hold in your hands and display on your shelf, order a copy today! (It's not too soon to start thinking of Christmas gifts...)

Still don't understand (Hoagland)

I said, "Love me better or go to hell."
I said, "I will forgive when I am good and ready."
I said, "Rumors of my happiness have been greatly exaggerated."
I still don't understand why what I give and what I get back in return never seem to weigh the same.

Tony Hoagland, from "Misunderstandings"

Options

Control your behavior, don't deny your impulses.

O world! (Shakespeare)

World, world, O world!
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Life would not yield to age.

William Shakespeare, from "King Lear"

Not yet (Girmay)

I am not ready to die yet.
I want to live longer knowing that wind
still moves a dead bird's feathers.
Wind doesn't move over & say That thing
can't fly. Don't go there. It's dead.
No, it just blows & blows lifting
what it can. I am not ready
to die yet. No.

Aracelis Girmay, from "I Am Not Ready To Die Yet"

Accountability

Sin together, atone alone.

Both (Jahren)

We are each given exactly one chance to be. Each of us is both impossible and inevitable.

Hope Jahren, Lab Girl