Reality & dreams (Sŭng-Hŭi)

Reality precedes dreams,
and then dreams destroy reality.

Kim Sŭng-Hŭi, "Sun Mass"

Everything

Everything can go wrong,
and so it does.

Of being alive (Campbell)

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Neither

Neither habit nor culture (habit writ large) should ever trump what's right.

New poems

+15

Facing death

Facing death, feel regret, feel grief,
don't feel fear, don't (if you can) feel relief.

Words matter

If my words matter
it is because words matter,
not because I matter.

Democracy

Democracy cannot work
when for half the voters
the choice is as bewildering
as a Sphinx's riddle.

No one

No one can do much by themselves.
Not even be themselves.

New poems

+15

Everything

Repetition in variation is everything.

A single, fleeting moment (Chang)

Who hasn't irrationally, or even foolishly, pursued a single, fleeting moment, trying to prolong it, capture its essence, even as it is passing?  As the moment lives, it is also dying.

Tina Chang, Language For A New Century: Contemporary Poetry From The
Middle East, Asia, and Beyond

Without justice (Greenan)

Without justice, the universe is an insult.

Russell H. Greenan, It Happened In Boston?

On communication

Most communication is the expression of bias.

New poems

+15

The natural state

Loneliness is the natural state of consciousness.

Art

Art is chaos translated
into something appreciable by humans.

New poems

+15

The truth

Everyone sees the truth.
Many fail to recognize it.

Suggestion

Respect the good.
Honor the true.
Worship nothing.

African-style chicken stew

Adapted from this recipe.

On culture

Why are people so hung up on the transient barriers that appear and fade within the totality of human culture?  This is not even missing the forest for the trees—it is obsession with the leaf.  I claim a right to any and all aspects of human culture, wherever, whenever, and however they arose and became part of the narrative.  Nothing belongs to anyone; everything belongs to everyone.

On discipline

The only discipline is self-discipline.

On despair

Despair is the corpse of hope.