yes (cummings)

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds

e. e. cummings, from "58"

Evening sheep

On life

Life is the opportunity to question, doubt, and be confused before the certainty of the grave.

Wisdom (Sarton)

Today, I have learned
That to become
A great, cracked,
Wide-open door
Into nowhere
Is wisdom.

May Sarton, from "Of the Muse"

Incompatible

Reality will take care of itself, but if your fantasies are incompatible, you're doomed.

For me (Sparks)

This is love for me, she said. I am not a good woman, she said. I am the end of all things, she said. This was at the beginning.

Amber Sparks, from "Birds With Teeth"

New poems

+15

Too short

Life is too short to countenance wicked people and unjust or unkind acts.

Our stories (Sparks)

I'm saying the world doesn't need our stories. The world is doing just fine without a plot.

Amber Sparks, from "The Cemetery for Lost Faces"

Point | Purpose

The point is not the purpose, the purpose not the point.

On poetry

Poetry is the familiar disguised as the surprising, and vice versa.

New poems

+15

Allegory

Nothing is allegory,
and everything is allegory
including the fact that nothing is allegory.

Illumination (Ekaku)

Mind illuminates old teachings; old teachings illuminate mind.

Hakuin Ekaku

It's history

History is a record of accidents, haphazardly noted by the half-blind trying to advance diverse and contradictory agendas.

The enemies

Conviction and complacency
are the enemies of truth.

New poems

+15

A choice

What is not an error but a choice
may also be a choice.

Which?

Am I defined by my limits or by
my desire to transcend them?

Or and

Live ethically or die.

So tired (Hughes)

I am so tired of waiting,
Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two—
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.

Langston Hughes, "Tired"

The competition

We compete to create
in order to determine
what will be remembered.

The pendulum of the mind (Jung)

The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

Carl Jung

New poems

+15

General rule

Better pedantic than obscure.

Reality

Reality is meant to be assimilated, not annihilated.

Five (Dostoyevsky)

I agree that two times two is four is an excellent thing; but if we're going to start praising everything, then two times two is five is sometimes also a most charming little thing.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes From Underground

Which one?

One of my poems could change the world.
I've no idea which one.

When they're gone

The good want the world to stop and take notice when they are gone. The wicked want it to never start again.

What price? (Bernstein)

Indeed, from a corporate point of view, having too many people in the workforce who think too much may be detrimental if they find themselves in dead-end jobs that require little thought. Such ideas are fundamentally antidemocratic of course; they are a breeding ground for a passive and mal-informed citizenry that is unable to make sense of the complex issues that confront the nation. What price do we have to pay for an informed citizenry, one that can understand the complex multiplicity of American culture, can read into events, not simply register them as a series of fated accomplishments?...Will we spend billions for defense while begrudging any money spent on what we are defending?

Charles Bernstein, Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays and Inventions

It's history

History doesn't care about history.

New poems

+15

Attacks (Nietzsche)

In times of peace, the warlike man attacks himself.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Volta

I admire the volta, but certainly don't feel obliged to it. It is pre-modern—nevermind postmodern—and there are many other ways to suggest conclusion—including eschewing it.

Act, surprise

Reduced to a pose, act.
Defined by an act, surprise.

The comparison (Manguso)

The trouble with comparing yourself to others is that there are too many others. Using all others as your control group, all your worst fears and all your fondest hopes are at once true. You are good; you are bad; you are abnormal; you are just like everyone else.

Sarah Manguso, 300 Arguments

I think

Thinking is talking that got out of hand.