Baked tilapia with tomatillo, orange juice, Thai chilis

Mortal fear (Pessl)

Mortal fear is as crucial a thing to our lives as love. It cuts to the core of our being and shows us what we are. Will you step back and cover your eyes? Or will you have the strength to walk to the precipice and look out? Do you want to know what is there or live in the dark delusion that this commercial world insists we remain sealed inside like blind caterpillars in an eternal cocoon? Will you curl up with your eyes closed and die? Or can you fight your way out of it and fly?

Marisha Pessl, Night Film

So common (Lawrence)

I cannot say whether this is a kind of madness or a condition so common as to be unremarkable.

Starling Lawrence, The Thief of Words

Intent

Without intent, there are no mistakes.

Easier

It is easier to open to the entire natural world than to the society of a single person.

Overly-trafficked

In an overly-trafficked world
even leading is following.

Focus

Focus is precious.

Always

The metaphorical is always preferable to the metaphysical.

On pretention

Pretention requires aspiration.

Process (Clare)

I wander out and rhyme.

John Clare, from "The Eternity of Nature"

Listening

We listen to each other's noise
hoping to hear music.

Acquisition

We want to acquire
but only accumulate.

Cognition

Cognition is based on obsession.

On individuality

Individuality isn't wrong, only expensive to maintain.

Memory

Memory: an approximate retelling of half-remembered misunderstandings.

Rule-breaking

You may break any rule but the rule that determines which rules you may break.

On grief

We want to shine with the beauty of grief
but only soil ourselves with it.

On the law

The law is a means, not an end.
It should not assault, but defend.

Not equivalent

Investigation is not equivalent to endorsement.

The periphery

There is none more mad or mistaken than one who, finding himself on the periphery, attempts to pretend the periphery the center.

The only cure

The only cure for curiosity is truth. No fiction will suffice. Not even happiness.

Perspective

Admire, never worship.

Insights

Insights are thrilling but can never be comprehensive.

Better #3

Better has published my poem "Dissensus" in their third issue. There are audio and video files of me reading the poem, but they are terrible (my fault, not theirs), so skip them! There are many other interesting poets to watch/listen to, however (including Fanny Howe!).

Idle eyes

Idle eyes invite reverie.

Another choice

There is no obligation to interact with others. It can help. It will also make things harder. Another choice you must make for yourself.

The tyranny of desire

Without the tyranny of desire we would subside into egalitarian nonbeing. The question is, would this be a good thing or not?

"The Spellcasters" and "Global Warming"

300 Days of Sun, a literary journal sponsored by the Nevada State College Humanities Department, has accepted two of my poems, "The Spellcasters" and "Global Warming," for publication in their inaugural issue. It will be a print journal featuring poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art. I can't wait to see it!

The world of constraints

The world of constraints laughs at—and depends upon—feeble liberty.

Useless (Sheck)

Better to be useless. The man who's seen as undesirable, maybe he can become free? No one wants or asks anything of him, or expects him to be other than he is.

Laurie Sheck, A Monster's Notes

Hope

Hope is the most primitive philosophy.

New poems

+10

It's better

Christianity has it wrong: it's better to be a god than a martyr.

Coercion

Only the weakest of minds allow violence to coerce compliance.