Every Day (Bachmann)

Der Krieg wird nicht mehr erklärt,
sondern fortgesetzt. Das Unerhörte
ist alltäglich geworden. Der Held
bleibt den Kämpfen fern. Der Schwache
ist in die Feuerzonen gerückt.
Die Uniform des Tages ist die Geduld,
die Auszeichnung der armselige Stern
der Hoffnung über dem Herzen.

War is no longer declared:
Just continued. The unheard-of
has become the quotidian.
The hero weasels out.
The weakling is at the front.
The uniform of the day is simply patience,
the highest decoration is the pathos of a star
of hope above the heart.

Ingeborg Bachmann, from "Alle Tage"

Irish soda bread muffins

From this recipe.

A work of art (Wilde)

If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson.  It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame.

Oscar Wilde

Gougéres

Tasty cheese puffs! From this recipe.

The error

The error is usually in the premise.

Of cause & consequence

Causes are contentious;
consequences, constant.

The news (Stefans)

We know the news when we refuse the headlines...

Brian Kim Stefans, from "The Screens"

Failure & age (Caldwell & Thomason)

The two hardest things to contemplate in life are failure and age; and those are one and the same. Perfection is the natural consequence of eternity: wait long enough, and anything will realize its potential. Coal becomes diamonds, sand becomes pearls, apes become men. It's simply not given to us, in one lifetime, to see those consummations, and so every failure becomes a reminder of death.

Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason, The Rule of Four

The past

You best honor the past by learning from it, not by emulating it, not by enshrining it.

New poems

+15

To diverge (Caldwell & Thomason)

Like all things in the universe, we are destined from birth to diverge. Time is simply the yardstick of our separation. If we are particles in a sea of distance, exploded from an original whole, then there is a science to our solitude. We are lonely in proportion to our years.

Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason, The Rule of Four

On frustration

Frustration is born not of the distance between what is and what is wanted, but from the impediments that bar one's progress from the one toward the other.

As best (Creeley)

I didn't know what I could do.
I have never known it
but in doing found it
as best I could.

Robert Creeley, from "Here"

The eras of misery (Rosenberg & Birdzell, Jr.)

We are led to forget the dominating misery of other times in part by the grace of literature, poetry, romance, and legend, which celebrate those who lived well and forget those who lived in the silence of poverty. The eras of misery have been mythologized and may even be remembered as golden ages of pastoral simplicity.  They were not.

Nathan Rosenberg & L. E. Birdzell, Jr.,
How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World

Reason

Reason attempts to confine infinity within the limits of chance and sense.

New poems

+15

Revenge (Lethem)

It's incredible to consider how much of American culture is revenge stories now. "Death Wish" has won.

Jonathan Lethem

Today

Today is yesterday,
reconstituted imperfectly.

Of stories (Rukeyser)

The universe is made of stories,
not of atoms.

Muriel Rukeyser, from "The Speed of Darkness"