Do you write poetry? (De Robertis)

I don't know whether I write poetry, or poetry writes me. Sometimes I feel like all of it—the world, my body, each move I make—is turning into a poem. It's excruciating. I can't breathe until I write.

Carolina de Robertis, The Invisible Mountain

Rational, intrepid (Robinson)

How might our world be different, if our literature, to say nothing of our politics, behaved more like a rational, intrepid adult than a hand-wringing adolescent?

Kim Stanley Robinson

Downsized Mom's birthday cake this year

Lemon drizzle cake from this recipe.

Authority

Don't just question authority: interrogate it.

New poems

+9

Schism

Schism is part of the process.

New poems

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Motivating

Pawns must be motivated differently than those who will benefit directly from policy. Thus, the birth of propaganda.

Within boundaries

Flexibility and adaptation, too, occur within certain boundaries and do not lead to conditions in which "anything goes."

Sweet pepper pasta

With chicken, onion, feta cheese and egg.

A shortcut or a fork (Kirsch)

One begins writing, in adolescence, as a detour away from life that is supposed to return one to the main road of life further on, at a better stage. Writing is seen as a shortcut, through isolation, to the communication and connection that are unavailable in reality. Only gradually does it become clear that the detour is really a fork in the road: as one continues to write, one moves farther away from life, from the communion with other people that writing was meant to provide. Eventually the main road can no longer be seen, but one keeps on writing: because of spite, because one is unfit for anything else and can’t go back, and because of the unbanishable hope that maybe the next turn in the road will bring one back to life.

Adam Kirsch

Of human bondage

To bond, you must bend.

Quick & easy

Little Smokies + Pillsbury Crescent Rolls:

New poems

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I'm on a roll!

Penumbra Magazine is going to publish two of my poems, "Invisible Things" and "Confabulatory Hypermnesia" in their inaugural fall/winter 2012 issue. Can't wait to see it!

Two

There are two sane responses to the human condition: humor and terror.

The Passage (Bronk)

People are passing; I look in passing at them.
Look, how the light comes down through them: they glow.
Once, I grasped at one. Oh, it was sweet.
It had nothing to do with me, or anyone.

William Bronk, "The Passage"

Everything's incredible (Huxley)

Everything's incredible, if you can skin off the crust of obviousness our habits put on it. Every object and event contains within itself an infinity of depths within depths. Nothing's in the least like what it seems—or rather it's like several million other things at the same time.

Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point

Idahoan fried cod

From this recipe.

New poems

+9

Election 2012 called

All hail the lesser (by a considerable margin) of two evils! The outcome has been obvious for some time—to all but the media who wanted to pretend it would be close.

Another poem accepted

Scholars & Rogues Literary Review has accepted my poem "Angel Lust" for publication. They previously published "The Anthropocene Scene," and I've been reading their site a lot lately, so I'm very pleased that they've taken another poem.

Pennsylvania Dutch corn and chicken soup

Recipe from Cook's Country.

Feeble and a little contemptible (Russell)

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.

Bertrand Russell

Chicken and cheese quesadilla pie

Recipe from Cook's Country.

Politics

One thing is certain with politics: the issues you are encouraged to discuss and debate are not the most important issues of the day.

New poems

+10

Poems accepted!

The Istanbul Review has accepted my poems "Maerchenkoenig ("Fairy-tale King")" and "Inanition" for publication in their next issue. In their first issue, they published writing by and interviews with such authors as Terry Pratchett, Paulo Coelho, and Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, so I am in excellent company!