The problem with history

The problem with history is how quickly it is supplanted.

Not enough?

How can there be not enough when there is so much?

Constitution

We are made of biology and biography.

Courage (Frost)

Courage is the human virtue that counts most—courage to act on limited knowledge and insufficient evidence. That's all any of us have.

Robert Frost

A refusal

Nothing debases one like a refusal to learn.

How much

How much complexity can be generated
by the manipulation of the very simple?

Misguided

It is misguided to privilege one kind or style or habit of thought as more appropriate to or more conducive to the crafting of successful poetry.

Poetry

Poetry doesn't have to be anything
to be good poetry except good.

New poems

+15

Contrast

Culture can change, but character can't.

Too much

Too much is never enough.

The vices

The vices are not as nice
as their voices.

Most human misunderstanding (Smith)

Most human misunderstanding arises less from differing points of view than from perceptions of different levels of significance. The world is a complex system, and our understanding of it comes, in science, from the matching of model structures with the physical structure of matter and, in art, from a perceived relationship between its physical structure and the levels of sensual and imaginative perception that are possible within the structure of our brain's workings.

Cyril Stanley Smith, A Search For Structure

On belief

I will never believe what I want to be true.

Never

Never confuse inevitable for good.

The puzzle

We are the puzzle we are least likely to solve.

There are arts

There are arts more subtle than art.

More are ruined

More are ruined by resistance
to change than by change itself.

Be careful

Be careful when something makes too much sense.

A truth

A truth overstated is a truth undermined.

Reaction

Poetry is not an action,
is always a reaction.
But what isn't?

So often

Indifference and malevolence so often feel the same.

Everything interesting

Everything interesting happens in my head.

Suddenly there's an idea (Bernhard)

Suddenly there's an idea and it demands realization, our entire life, our entire existence consists only of such ideas demanding realization, once this process breaks off, our life breaks off, we're dead. We consist of nothing but ideas that surface inside us and that we want to realize, that we must realize, or else we're dead... Every idea and every pursuit of an idea inside us is life...the lack of ideas is death.

Thomas Bernhard, Correction

Despair

All despair is prompted by the ephemeral
or the impossible.

New poems

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Intended

Intent is intended
to ward off accident.

On scientism

Scientism says nothing about science; rather, it reveals something about the kind of person who rejects the latter in favor of the former.

Be sure to benefit

Be sure to benefit from what something has to offer before you criticize and reject it for what it doesn’t.

A test

Anyone who uses their powers to test you
fails a more important test.

So much

It costs so much
for everything to be so cheap.

A waste of time

No one can grant you a right, so it is a waste of time to ask for them. What must instead be demanded is recognition of and respect for the unacknowledged rights which are already yours.

ChatGPT's response to one of my thoughts

The very nature of memory predisposes us to view our relationship to things in terms of possession.

***

I asked ChatGPT what it thought of the above "quote" of mine:

I think that the quote "The very nature of memory predisposes us to view our relationship to things in terms of possession" is a thought-provoking and insightful observation. Memory is closely tied to our sense of self, and we often use memories to construct narratives about our lives and identities. In this sense, memories can give us a sense of ownership over our experiences and the things that we associate with those experiences.

At the same time, our memories are subjective and malleable, and they can be influenced by a range of factors, including our emotions, biases, and social and cultural contexts. This means that our sense of ownership and possession over our memories and experiences may not always be entirely accurate or objective.

Overall, I think that this quote highlights the complex relationship between memory, identity, and ownership, and it invites us to reflect on how our memories shape our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us.

"You are on the river, drifting"

Happily, California Quarterly has decided to take a second poem from my submission, "You are on the river, drifting." They will both appear in Vol. 48, No. 1 later this year.

"So Many Things"

300 Days of Sun has accepted my poem "So Many Things." It has been just under ten years(!) since my last work was published there, so I'm pleased to place another poem with them.

No one

No one has the right to tell me what to do, or, worse, to force me to do it. And while some have been granted (or have taken upon themselves) the power to do so, that in no way obliges me to recognize this power as authority.

New poems

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Most

Most choose story over self.

Impossible

There are two kinds of impossible:
the kind we call impossible
and the kind we call possible.

To create

To create is to excrete.

Truth & nuance

There is more truth in nuance than nuance in truth.

"After 2"

My poem, "After 2," has been accepted for publication in California Quarterly. Looking forward to seeing it in print.

New poems

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Not inclusivity

It is not inclusivity to exclude
all but the preferred.

Of myths

The inevitability of justice is the most reassuring and the most terrifying of myths.

Read a poem

Read a poem
on its own terms
or not at all.

The secret of happiness (Russell)

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

My poems

My poems work better within the context of my poems.

All these things

If, as you say, I have sold my soul for all these things, then I'll be damned if I won't enjoy them.

The community

The community I seek membership in is the one that grants entry only upon your declaration of your independence from the community.

A debt

A debt that you were forced to acquire is not really a debt at all.

We can

We can admire a system and still reject it.

New poems

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Forgetting

I keep forgetting just how much I have forgotten.

Experience yourself (Camus)

You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.

Albert Camus, Notebooks, 1935-1951

Labels

Labels are often useful,
and always problematic.

Life disappoints

Life disappoints because we want destination, not cessation.

New poems

+15

Morals

Morals are always based in values.
Values are not invariant.
Therefore, morals are not universal.

Hi Ren

I keep returning to this again and again. I really think this may be the best thing to happen in music so far in the 21st century:

Our assumptions

So many of our assumptions are not only wrong but ridiculous. It may be that the biggest improvement to our conclusions might come from a careful examination of our assumptions.

Weak and dumb

Is it, in fact, the case that most people are weak and dumb, or is it, rather, that most people only present as weak and dumb due to various sociological and psychological factors?

If one can

If one person can do it, it is something that people can do (which is not to say that everyone can do it).