Bullies

You can compel obedience but not respect.

On identity

Identity is measured in intimacies.

An exact copy

An exact copy is not identical, but it participates in identity.

The lesson of life

The lesson of life is to learn to love life less.

Flaw

There is a flaw in the notion of a flaw.

If it matters

It doesn't matter if it matters.

Half-truth (Gibran)

He who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.

Kahlil Gibran, Thoughts and Meditations

New poems

+15

The search

We search for someone unknown
and, finding them, find them unknowable.

The Aim of the Nightingale (Shah)

A nightingale who happened to have no home of his own decided that he would try to settle in a certain forest. The birds who were already there, however, had their own ideas about the matter, and soon drove him out.
    One day, sitting disconsolately by the dusty road nearby, he was spied by another nightingale, who stopped to ask why he looked so forlorn.
    "I tried," said the first bird, "to make my home among other birds, but they pecked, and they mobbed me, and they flapped at me until I had to leave yonder forest."
    "Perhaps you were boastful," said the other nightingale. "When, in a similar situation, I sought a tree of my own, all the birds first collected and asked me what I was doing, why I was singing."
    "Yes, those birds did the same with me," said the first nightingale.
    "And what did you say?"
    "I said: 'I am singing because I simply cannot help it.'"
    "And then?"
    "And then they attacked me, as I have described."
    "Ah," said the other bird, "that was your mistake. They thought that you had no self-control, that you might be mad and that you might try to make them behave in a similar manner. When I was asked the same question, I said: 'I am trying to please you with my song.' That was an aim which they could understand."

Idries Shah, The Magic Monastery

On purity

Purity is the greatest perversion.

Irrelevancies (Shah)

Irrelevancies are often more striking than relevancies. Interesting yourselves in the striking rather than the significant thing is usual but not useful.

Idries Shah, The Magic Monastery

Change

Change something and you change everything.

New poems

+15

Quick 2018 Summation

Books Read:  74
Poems Written:  508

One number up, one number down. Given the chaotic nature of the year, I'll take it.

Prunes (Xie)

One self prunes violently
at all the others
thinking she's the gardener.

Jenny Xie, from "Tending"

Amazing (George)

It's amazing how unimpressed people are by being loved when it doesn't fit in with their plans.

Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

Rat's Ass Review

My poems "Discontinuity" and "In Ruins" have been published in the Winter 2018 Issue of Rat's Ass Review. Check them—and the other poems in the issue—out!

Resurrection

Resurrection is not rescue.

Position

Position is poison.