Blue Fifth Review

Blue Fifth Review has published my poem "100 Minutes of Solitude" in their September 2013 Poetry Special.

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On grief

Grief is harder than failure.

Praise them

The makers are sacred;
the fixers, divine.

The opposition

We oppose an act not only to prevent its effect
but to chastise the impulse behind it.

On change

Change requires more reason
than continuation.

Is to

Coercion is to compliance
what revelation is to love.

Already (Goldbarth)

...the world is a story I'm already half-forgetting.

Albert Goldbarth, from "A Book About Rembrandt"

On myth

Myths have color, light,
but no weight.

Opposition

Two ideas in opposition
make an interesting composition.

Angst

Forbidden our fists,
anger becomes angst.

Autumn is here

Pedigrees

Grief created heaven,
hate created hell.

Year-round

Spontaneous feeling
is spring year-round.

Advice

"Be yourself" is terrible advice.
Better: "Become yourself."

Together

Love and carelessness
consume the world.

Critique

If consent is weak,
what is critique?

Utility

If it's here, I'll use it—
doesn't mean I need it.

Production

We all live bare in brothels
and are expected to produce.

Containment

We can't contain
all that we take in,
and we don't know how to let it out again.

Love yourself

The reason they say
you must love yourself
is that it teaches you to love
the flawed.

Envy (Sheck)

I think I was an envious person once. And yet, when I think now of the people outside these walls, the ones I often envied as a boy and for years after, I don't really envy them anymore. But shouldn't my envy have grown greater, not less, given what's befallen me? Shouldn't I want to be like them, want to take from them what's theirs, resent them for what they still have? Yet I watch as from a great distance, a place I'll never return from, a gap composed of space and time. A tenderness, a certain feeling of protectiveness even, comes over me—for the ones I think of and the small, vulnerable dailiness of their lives...I want them to go to the market and be all right, to laugh with each other and talk over dinner and play with their children and go to their jobs and have celebrations and longings and dreams and plans and be all right. I don't envy them or hate them. I can't say if they just seem unreal to me now, part of something I can never touch or be part of again. I don't know. But I think of their fragility, always of their fragility, even the obnoxious and the rich ones, the ones I can't stand, the ones who eat too much and wear too many rings.

Laurie Sheck, A Monster's Notes

Difference

Difference is a matter of emphasis.

On the exotic

Penalizing acknowledgment of the exotic
is another way to reject the exotic.

On freedom

We are physically biased against freedom.

Just

People often confuse just for nice,
until they don't.

The objective

The objective perspective is not the same as
the subjective, but it is not invalid,
even (especially?) in personal matters.

The distance

Though we attach a name to salvation,
we still have to cross the distance to reach it.

On judgement

We can only be judged
to the limits of our understanding.

"Angel" chicken

Tried this slow cooker recipe. Not horrible, but disappointingly bland.

Advantage

Advantage can sometimes provide a greater challenge than adversity.

I still prefer it.

The familiarity

It is not the alienness of Frankenstein's monster that is offputting; it's the familiarity.

New poems

+8

On failure

Failure is a success
when it acts as a warning or a goad.

Better

I believe in better,
though best is clearly preposterous.

The hidden

The better part of the hidden
is merely unencountered.

Slavery & walls (Sheck)

There is no country, faith or sacred cause but passes eventually into slavery and walls.

Laurie Sheck, A Monster's Notes

On grief

Grief is a gap
through which the inevitable peeks.

True naiveté

True naiveté often lies in judging others naive.

Coming to terms

Poetry is another way of coming to terms with how little we know.

Contradictions

Contradictions are clues.

More quotes from Don Paterson (Paterson)

To renounce not the self but your self; somehow a very different proposition.

He spent his life paralyzed by imaginary protocols.

Whale to the ocean, bird to the sky, man to his dream.

Our dreams so often surpass the world's ability to express them.

All those chairs and bathtubs and cars and shoes which, emptied of us, are immediately returned to absurdity. How many lonely things we make for the world.

Don Paterson, Best Thought, Worst Thought

On truth

Truth is quiescent
without relevance.

Identity

Identity is polarity
plus volume.

Death

Death is not in the world;
only occasions for its summoning.

Revocation

Revocation is the greatest power.

Some quotes from Don Paterson (Paterson)

Fragments, indeed. As if there were anything to break.

History does not caution; it sanctions.

We're forever reading atrocities as mere omens; anything to do nothing a little while longer.

We turn from the light to see.

Don Paterson, Best Thought, Worst Thought

Sand

Sand is the best model for humanity.

Milestone

This is the 1501st post I've made on the blog.

Easier ways (Britto)

There are easier ways to look ridiculous
that don't require much practice, craft, or study.
More pleasant ways to be humiliated
and say, hey, here I am, one of a kind. Love me.

Paulo Henriques Britto, from "Biodiversity"

Poetry

Poetry is full of unspeakable things.

The habit (Britto)

The habit of being here now
slowly replaces the compulsion
of being somebody, or something, all the time.

Paulo Henriques Britto, from "Minor Epiphany"

On choice

Choice is acceptance.

New poems

+10

Much

Much is said and done
that makes no sense
except as an admission of madness.

Time

We are given time
to give up time.

The questions

We are ennobled by asking the questions,
impoverished by our failure to answer them.
And exalted by our ability to act in ignorance.