Wisdom

Wisdom is the mastery of knowledge.

Making self

To make a newer self,
discover older models.

Cook's Country slow cooker spaghetti & meatballs

Seems a long time since I posted a food pic here!

Truth (Huxley)

When truth is nothing but the truth, it's unnatural, it's an abstraction that resembles nothing in the real world. In nature there are always so many other irrelevant things mixed up with the essential truth. That's why art moves you—precisely because it's unadulterated with all the irrelevancies of real life.

Aldous Huxley, from Point Counter Point

On religion

Religion is security theater against the unknown assailant.

The choice

Sometimes the only ethical choice is to refuse to choose.

Some kind of synthesis (Stasiuk)

I've read thousands of books in my life. I've talked with hundreds of people, made friends with dozens of them; I've seen a lot of the world and been in various strange places. Out of all of this, you'd think some kind of synthesis would arise, some lesson for the future. Yet nothing of the sort has happened. I wake up each morning and wait for events to recede into the past. It's only then that they come into focus, only then that they acquire some meaning. The future is a big vacuum.

Andrzej Stasiuk, from "Memory"

New poems

+5

Our natures

Never be afraid to be who you are. There are times when we may have to restrain our natures, for various reasons, but that doesn't mean that we should persistently pervert our expression. We should try to accommodate others where it seems reasonable to do so, but we have no obligation to satisfy their expectations.

A family trait (Robinson)

We had been assured by our elders that intelligence was a family trait. All my kin and forebears were people of substantial or remarkable intellect, though somehow none of them had prospered in the world...If my family were not as intelligent as we were pleased to pretend, this was an innocent deception, for it was a matter of indifference to everybody whether we were intelligent or not.

Marilynne Robinson, from Housekeeping

The art of losing (Bishop)

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop, from "One Art"

The atrocity

Rationalization is the atrocity of philosophy.

The homeland (Stasiuk)

The homeland, the myth of the homeland, becomes a fundamental value for those who have nothing else. The nineteenth-century nation-state that was supposed to be the guarantor of all social, economic, cultural, intellectual, and political values becomes instead a substitute for them.

Andrzej Stasiuk, from Fado

No reward

You can't expect reward from the same society whose values you reject.

New poems

+6

The Nuclear Threat (Harkaway)

I grew up with the Nuclear Threat. It lived on the corner of my street and it walked with me to school. Gonzo and I used to play with it when none of the other kids wanted to talk to us. We got so tired of playing Armageddon with that damn unimaginative Nuclear Threat that we implored it to learn another game, but it never did. Mostly it just sat there in the back of the classroom and glowered. And then one day we heard it was dead. Some people seemed pretty upset about this, but I was just glad I didn't have to carry it around any more. Kids are selfish.

Nick Harkaway, from The Gone-Away World

Opinions

Opinions are not stories. We should not compete to see who can contrive the most unusual, the most entertaining, or the most comforting opinions, or try to adopt the most popular, the most familiar, the "best-selling." Opinion is a poor substitute for truth; it is what we resort to when we don't know the facts. Facts are not subject to opinion (though interpretation of facts may be, at times). Anyone can "make shit up"—but what's the point? That's what we have fiction writers for.

Jobs

Americans worship jobs more than any gods.

Words

Sample of words used in my poetry (from the VocabGrabber website):

anabatic ulteriority fecalith anaclitic gray sole dissilient mitochondrion acrophobic travel plan sea cucumber hamartia unbridle infarct mess-up susurrant eye blink tostada eukaryotic eros hatemonger make-do pleach Florida key kissing cousin haptic bargain down accrete corporatism spatial relation regurgitate arrhythmic epiphenomenon hedonic ataraxia meiosis cybersex fetishize Venn diagram hybrid vigor unidirectional encode samsara nursery rhyme deconstruct logorrhea Zealot eremitic artificial flower saguaro home invasion male genitalia pocket mouse in-between caliche pentimento mundanity rambutan cyclops finitely incestuously schlep synapsis referential personality test minutia haiku sopor throated seashell Cyclopes fixative neuronal misappropriate wintery origami cremate recombine erode kludge one-liner pleonasm misdirection liger insomniac mantic juxtapose fractal sanitize Nipa atonic peccant weatherman vivisectionist dyad nuisance value assort mottle synaptic semiotic holey subsume fall into place unreduced vomit up lumpen pyramid scheme agendum storage room poltergeist shoed pointillist impermeable unresponsive spatter intuit unsanctioned placeholder besmirch miscast overheat substrate gobbet inauthentic meatloaf rework siren call ascensional bowel movement encrypt stasis elitism rictus neologism destine aleatory kudzu boxed in generalist raindrop misdirect arousal invasion of privacy trivially erectly recycle uncorroborated virga centerfold osmosis enosis solipsism toenail distend striping foreplay fado skitter topiary uncaring eroded jello flimflam cutting room hellfire reexamine unidentifiable expedience additive demimonde toilet seat collection plate twenty percent palimpsest self-worship unreceptive death mask bilaterally connectedness endgame cough up bagel particulate deafen unprompted recombinant hold open excoriate reincarnate all get out skeletal chew up wrinkly boondoggle crisscross bon vivant gravid crud preempt damply pare down deconstruction shatter Pegasus eardrum nuclear family castrate festoon stutter overburden co-opt proto chooser shambolic rechargeable cross out obsolescence sentience Degas sculpt serenade idiosyncratic transience vector monetize capriccio slobber enthrall appall anagram knothole deviant gelded Riff devalue overeager sedation brassiere smirk democratize splat like sin cull yodel foodstuff piglet weight down gnome firework pester Ashe Cajun otherness neuron entropy feral extraterrestrial aloneness consonantal enshrine pygmy eroticism unremarked prankster smolder banana republic taxonomy redefine voyeur tabula rasa mammal boob voiding choosy fly high DOE runny retell keep apart masterfully time capsule ineluctable sever wagon wheel aesthete Para breadbasket inscribe doily college girl coup d'oeil get wise sump sex devalued tree branch shamble snap off seethe encoding prefab slipperiness rutty destructively unoriginal specificity cacophony turn off body count symbiosis Casanova numb threnody puddle lade sloppiness shopping cart commercialization get stuck ramble on blinks belabor segmented yowl push aside rhyme slither peter rote centaur peter out like kings dream drip rive Alexander Graham Bell tabletop relational geld sneak away Siren zombie obsess discrete rename spin matrix epiphany dun-colored poem habituate spavined djinn belch rut peccadillo dependent on rite of passage raspy huffing genitalia bible detente unconstrained porcine crazily apnea primitively pick at decode papaya harpy snuffle percolate broaden coconut beading slicked peek lie deflate align claque

New poems

+7 ...including my 1000th poem!

Hmm...

Why would anyone try to get blood out of a stone when it is so easy to get with one?