The null

The null annuls nothing: everything is cancelled, rather, by the action of something else.

On computation

Computation is productive corruption.

On death

Death is an emptying of what living has filled.

Nothing special

One can be nothing special and still be special in one's own time.

New poems

+30

The most important thing

The most important thing is to notice things.

What I object to

I don't object to artists surrendering control. I object to their surrendering judgment.

New poems

+30

The citizens (Herbert)

the citizens
don't want to defend themselves
they are attending accelerated courses
on falling to the knees

Zbigniew Herbert, from "Mr Cogito on Upright Attitudes"

Opinion

I would rather have ten unpopular opinions than one factually erroneous one.

Always

Absolutists are always wrong.

Words

Words are the rust of the poem.

New poems

+15

Most of the way

I can write my way most of the way there.

New poems

+15

Better

Better to think of the first day on the last day than to think of the last day on the first day.

How we celebrate

How we celebrate those who fail to fail!

More than

Be sure to chew more than you can bite off.

They are such fools (Cicero)

They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters to Atticus, Book I, 18

The hardest thing

Perhaps the hardest thing is to recalibrate.