The purpose of life

The purpose of life, or at least what makes it bearable, is to discover sources of satisfaction from which you can construct at least an intermittent contentment.

New poems

+15

The fanatics

The fanatics make fanatics of us all.

The value of love

When there is absolutely no love in your life,
then you know the value of love.

Nightmare world

How much of our world is built of fearful people's nightmares.

A strange thing (Chambers)

It was always a strange thing, coming home. Coming home meant that you had, at one point, left it and, in doing so, irreversibly changed. How odd, then, to be able to return to a place that would always be anchored in your notion of the past. How could this place still be there, if the you that once lived there no longer existed?

Becky Chambers, A Prayer For The Crown-Shy

Freedom & prosperity

Freedom and prosperity are not inherently linked, but we should endeavor at all times to pair them.

New poems

+15

Desire

Desire is a synonym for life.

A poetry

I don't want a poetry of recitation;
I want a poetry of inquiry.

On superstition

The compulsive nature of superstition should make it immediately suspect.

Every moment

Every moment, lost, becomes an eternal memorial of loss.

Every villain

Every villain is somebody's hero.

Sincere striving

Sincere striving doesn't rely on sterile relics.

New poems

+15

The Calendar of Heresies

My newest book of poetry, The Calendar of Heresies, is now out! Had fun making the cover of this one using Midjourney. Those wishing to purchase a copy may do so at Amazon.

Never

Affinity can never be compulsory.

The point of grammar

The point of grammar is not to restrict nuance.

New poems

+15

Primitivist

A synonym for fundamentalist is primitivist: one who rejects a complexity of understanding and clings to a simplistic perspective or framework.

Cleans up

Death cleans up what life obliterates.

For the Stoic (Percy)

For the Stoic there is no real hope. His finest hour is to sit tight-lipped and ironic while the world comes crashing down around him.

Walker Percy, Signposts in a Strange Land

So quaint

Is there anything so quaint as yesterday's dream of tomorrow?

New poems

+15

Hero vs. villain

A hero surpasses expectation; a villain subverts them.

Inevitably

Inevitability is intolerable.

True love

True love is loving the object of love more than the idea of love.

The one debt

The one debt we rarely repay is the one we owe ourselves.

No clear understanding (Bernhard)

...No clear understanding of anything is possible, only an approach to an understanding...

Thomas Bernhard, Correction

Ignorance

Ignorance is not bliss,
it's powerlessness.

Facing tomorrow

New poems

+15

Birth of a fairy

The darkness & the light

The darkness denies what the light provides.

Lost river

Troubled

The most sane are the most troubled.

Exploring

New poems

+15

Sadness

Inevitability

Nothing teaches inevitability like aging.

Honeysuckle

Our destiny

Our destiny is to deny our destiny.

The videogamers

Bad art

Ideology doesn't just make bad art, it is bad art.

Home away from home

Our dystopia (Graham)

We’re all in this dystopia together. We created it. It’s born of human imagination and invention and desire every bit as much as the antidotes to it must be. It’s all bred from human curiosity and its desires. You can’t separate the disaster from the star. That’s why we are so enmeshed in it. That’s why it’s so desperately hard to even look in a mirror. There is no one else to look to but us, as this is all us, our doing, our going down one of the possible roads we were given, one of the aspects of mind, one of the many options in imagination. Greed played its huge role; and hubris; and the desire for a shortcut. But also curiosity, the inextinguishable human love of invention, of the "new."

Jorie Graham

New poems

+15

A colorful character

On love

Love may be incompatible with drama.

Quick 2022 Summation

Books Read:  92
Poems Written:  972

Great rebound numbers this year, and I published a book of poetry in February. Didn't submit any individual poems though.

Happy New Year!