philosophy – John Sapiro

The Fountains

October 27, 2021Posted in poetryTagged books, grief, happiness, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, wishesLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Luke Stackpoole via Unsplash

WHEN you are drinking the water of joy from the alabaster fountain, you may form your wish, and it shall be granted. As you raise your wish higher, the water will be sweeter and sweeter to the taste; but beware that you are not tempted by its increasing sweetness to repeat your draughts, for the ill effects of your wish can only be removed by drinking the spring of sorrow from the bason of flint, which will be bitter in the same proportion as the water of joy was sweet.

— Samuel Johnson

A bell in your head will ring

October 26, 2021Posted in poetryTagged charity, compassion, inspiration, kindness, life, literature, love, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

photograph by Narges Pms via Unsplash

IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

— Emily Dickinson

All the Children Sing

Invictus

October 22, 2021Posted in poetryTagged disabled, hospital, illness, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

photograph by SHVETS production via Pexels

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow’d.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

— William Ernest Henley

Little Fighter

“Aristotle Agonistes”

October 10, 2021Posted in poetryTagged life, literature, love, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, relationships, romance, Thoughts, writingLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Yan Krukov via Pexels

Aristotle Agonistes

spontaneous generator
took him
from the Lyceum
to the agora
not Platonic dialogues
the Socratic method

— J.S.

The Jean Genie

What is Life?

October 8, 2021Posted in poetryTagged existentialism, life, literature, meaning, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. Maclean’s Magazine (1961)

And what is Life?—An hour-glass on the run,
A Mist retreating from the morning sun,
A busy, bustling, still repeated dream;
Its length?—A minute’s pause, a moment’s thought;
And happiness?—A bubble on the stream,
That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought.

— John Clare

Ode to the West Wind

October 6, 2021Posted in poetryTagged determination, inspiration, life, literature, music, Percy Bysshe Shelley, perseverance, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

Photograph by Mathilde LMD via Unsplash

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own?
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like wither’d leaves, to quicken a new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

No Surprize

The Honky Tonk Blues

September 26, 2021September 26, 2021Posted in booksTagged books, depression, life, literature, loneliness, love, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, relationships, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Ron Lach via Pexels

Qui de nous n’a eu sa terre promise, son jour d’extase et sa fin en exil?

— Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Nondum amabam, et amare amabam, quaerebam quid amarem amans amare.

September 22, 2021Posted in poetryTagged depression, life, literature, loss, lost love, mental illness, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. video by cottonbro via Pexels

Art and eloquence,
And all the shows o’ the world, are frail and vain
To weep a loss that turns their lights to shade.
It is a woe ‘too deep for tears’ when all
Is reft at once, when some surpassing Spirit,
Whose light adorned the world around it, leaves
Those who remain behind, not sobs or groans,
The passionate tumult of a clinging hope,—
But pale despair and cold tranquillity,
Nature’s vast frame, the web of human things,
Birth and the grave, that are not as they were.

— Shelley

Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)

The Docent

September 21, 2021Posted in poetryTagged art, inspiration, life, literature, memories, music, paintings, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, ThoughtsLeave a comment

UMFA Docent Yearbook, 2014-2015

oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance—
If I should be where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes those gleams
Of past existence,—wilt thou then forget
That on the banks of this delightful stream
We stood together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service: rather say
With warmer love, oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

— Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour July 13, 1798”

Defying Gravity

The Poet, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide onward, descends into Limbo.

September 15, 2021Posted in literatureTagged books, couple, Dante Alighieri, Inferno, literature, love, memories, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

photograph by Andrea Riondino via Unsplash

“No greater grief than to remember days of joy, when misery is at hand.”

— Inferno

When I Was Mary’s Prayer

“That sir which serves and seeks for gain and follows but for form will pack when it begins to rain and leave thee in the storm.”

August 24, 2021Posted in literatureTagged books, inspiration, life, literature, love, music, philosophy, photography, poetry, psychology, quotes, Shakespeare, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Noah Buscher via Unsplash

Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may’st shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

— King Lear

All Broken Hearts Break Differently

Dum vivimus, vivamus!

June 20, 2021Posted in booksTagged aging, books, carpe diem, inspiration, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. Video by MART PRODUCTION via Pexels

“It’s not too late for you, on any side, and you don’t strike me as in danger of missing the train; besides which people can be in general pretty well trusted, of course—with the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems to do here—to keep an eye on the fleeting hour. All the same don’t forget that you’re young—blessedly young; be glad of it on the contrary and live up to it. Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that what have you had?
…But that doesn’t affect the point that the right time is now yours. The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have. You’ve plenty; that’s the great thing; you’re, as I say, damn you, so happily and hatefully young. Don’t at any rate miss things out of stupidity. Of course I don’t take you for a fool, or I shouldn’t be addressing you thus awfully. Do what you like so long as you don’t make my mistake. For it was a mistake. Live!”

— Henry James, The Ambassadors

Born to Run

“Studies In The History Of The Renaissance”

June 9, 2021Posted in poetryTagged bipolar disorder, creative writing, literature, memories, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, relationships, romance, Thoughts, writingLeave a comment

James Jowers, “St. Marks Place” (1968)

“Studies In The History Of The Renaissance”

Pater,
once
I burned
with your
hard gem-like flame
once
maintained this ecstasy
It will not last the night
burning still
a lovely light

— J.S.

Candy’s Room

Hope

May 28, 2021Posted in booksTagged bipolar disorder, books, depression, inspiration, life, literature, mental illness, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

photograph by Victorien Ameline via Unsplash

E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.
And so we came forth, and once again beheld the stars.

— William Styron, Darkness Visible

Don’t Let Go The Coat

On a stormy sea of moving emotion

May 22, 2021Posted in literatureTagged depression, inspiration, life, literature, music, people, philosophy, photography, psychiatry, psychology, quotes, reading, Thoughts2 Comments

photograph by Warren Wong via Unsplash

Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. “We have lost the first of the ebb,” said the Director suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.

— Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“So foul a sky clears not without a storm.”

— Shakespeare, King John

Whosoever unceasingly strives upward … him can we save.

— Goethe

Carry On Wayward Son

a long and dangerous voyage

May 20, 2021Posted in booksTagged books, fiction, life, literature, music, people, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, readingLeave a comment

photograph by Mert Kahveci via Unsplash

At this moment, the tavern door opened. Several persons entered bringing with them an odor of wet dog to which was blent the smell of coal wafted by the wind through the opened door. Des Esseintes was incapable of moving a limb. A soft warm languor prevented him from even stretching out his hand to light a cigar. He told himself: “Come now, let us get up, we must take ourselves off.” Immediate objections thwarted his orders. What is the use of moving, when one can travel on a chair so magnificently? Was he not even now in London, whose aromas and atmosphere and inhabitants, whose food and utensils surrounded him? For what could he hope, if not new disillusionments, as had happened to him in Holland?

He had but sufficient time to race to the station. An overwhelming aversion for the trip, an imperious need of remaining tranquil, seized him with a more and more obvious and stubborn strength. Pensively, he let the minutes pass, thus cutting off all retreat, and he said to himself, “Now it would be necessary to rush to the gate and crowd into the baggage room! What ennui! What a bore that would be!” Then he repeated to himself once more, “In fine, I have experienced and seen all I wished to experience and see. I have been filled with English life since my departure. I would be mad indeed to go and, by an awkward trip, lose those imperishable sensations. How stupid of me to have sought to disown my old ideas, to have doubted the efficacy of the docile phantasmagories of my brain, like a very fool to have thought of the necessity, of the curiosity, of the interest of an excursion!”

“Well!” he exclaimed, consulting his watch, “it is now time to return home.”

This time, he arose and left, ordered the driver to bring him back to the Sceaux station, and returned with his trunks, packages, valises, rugs, umbrellas and canes, to Fontenay, feeling the physical stimulation and the moral fatigue of a man coming back to his home after a long and dangerous voyage.

— Huysmans, Against The Grain

Call me the breeze

madwoman in the attic

May 18, 2021May 18, 2021Posted in booksTagged books, fashion, fiction, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, readingLeave a comment

photograph by Isi Parente via Unsplash

“…but now I have a particular reason for wishing to hear all about the fire. Was it suspected that this lunatic, Mrs. Rochester, had any hand in it?”

“You’ve hit it, ma’am: it’s quite certain that it was her, and nobody but her, that set it going…”

— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Seether

Icarus and Psyche

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021Posted in poetryTagged aging, creative writing, life, literature, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, writingLeave a comment

photograph by David Raichman via Unsplash

Icarus and Psyche

Keats, what thoughts I have of you tonight
O, Hyperion! O, aching time!
thoughts of the hopes of the past —
the burden of the mystery
of the wide world
I stand alone
a sick eagle
far from the fiery noon
and eve’s one star

— J.S.

Wouldn’t It Be Good

Roderick Hudson

May 11, 2021Posted in booksTagged books, fiction, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, psychology, reading, Thoughts, writingLeave a comment

photograph by REVOLT via Unsplash

“It’s greater happiness than you deserve, then! You have never chosen, I say; you have been afraid to choose. You have never really faced the fact that you are false, that you have broken your faith. You have never looked at it and seen that it was hideous, and yet said, ‘No matter, I’ll brave the penalty, I’ll bear the shame!’ You have closed your eyes; you have tried to stifle remembrance, to persuade yourself that you were not behaving as badly as you seemed to be, and there would be some way, after all, of compassing bliss and yet escaping trouble. You have faltered and drifted, you have gone on from accident to accident, and I am sure that at this present moment you can’t tell what it is you really desire!”

— Henry James, Roderick Hudson

Flaming Youth

Öd’ und leer das Meer

April 29, 2021Posted in poetryTagged aging, life, literature, love, memories, music, nostalgia, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. Maclean’s Magazine (1986)

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain…

— The Waste Land

Time Passages

Slough of Despond

April 17, 2021Posted in booksTagged books, digital art, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

…it is called the Slough of Despond; for still, as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place. And this is the reason of the badness of this ground.

— Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress

Finding Myself

April 13, 2021Posted in poetryTagged art, books, life, literature, music, paintings, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. William Hamilton, “Male Traveler in a Storm” (1770–80)

The little world, the subject of my muse,
Is a huge task and labor infinite;
Like to a wilderness or mass confuse,
Or to an endless gulf, or to the night:
How many strange Meanders do I find?
How many paths do turn my straying pen?
How many doubtful twilights make me blind,
Which seek to limb out this strange All of men?
Easy it were the earth to portray out,
Or to draw forth the heavens’ purest frame,
Whose restless course, by order whirls about
Of change and place, and still remains the same.
But how shall man’s, or manner’s, form appear,
Which while I write, do change from what they were?

— Thomas Bastard, Book 1, Epigram 5: Ad lectorem de subjecto operis sui.

I wish it would rain down

Non Semper Erit Aestas

February 26, 2021Posted in booksTagged books, fiction, literature, love, memories, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, reading, relationships, romance, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. Tom McCarthy, “Renaissance of the Upper West Side” (New York Magazine, 1969)

“What is time?” A mystery, a figment — and all-powerful. It conditions the exterior world, it is motion married to and mingled with the existence of bodies in space, and with the motion of these. Would there then be no time if there were no motion? No motion if no time? We fondly ask. Is time a function of space? Or space of time? Or are they identical? Echo answers. Time is functional, it can be referred to as action; we say a thing is “brought about” by time. What sort of thing? — Change! Now is not then, here not there, for between them lies motion. But the motion by which one measures time is circular, is in a closed circle; and might almost equally well be described as rest, as cessation of movement — for the there repeats itself constantly in the here, the past in the present…

— Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain (Tr. Lowe-Porter)

I Need You

in memoriam

February 13, 2021Posted in poetryTagged eulogy, in memory, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, reading, requiemLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Cade Prior via Pexels

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

— Langston Hughes, Mother to Son

Jacob’s Ladder

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

February 1, 2021Posted in lifeTagged books, inspiration, letters, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, purpose, quotes, reading, Thoughts, writingLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Vlad Bagacian via Pexels

In the last year of his life he wrote his daughter, “I wish now I’d never relaxed or looked back – but said at the end of “The Great Gatsby”: I’ve found my line – from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty – without this I am nothing.”

— Arthur Mizener, “Gatsby, 35 Years Later”

Almost ten years ago I participated in the conference whose proceedings would become the volume “Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism.” Stanley sat directly in front of me and listened attentively to my talk, thrilling and scary, not to say awkward, reading out “Cavell writes…” and “Cavell says…” with the man right there. After the Q and A, someone, I don’t remember who, brought me over and introduced us. Stanley shook my hand and with the other patted my shoulder and said, with a broad smile, “Stay on your path, young man.”

— Paul Grimstad, “Stay on Your Path, Young Man”

Point Of Know Return

Opus 1

January 11, 2021Posted in poetryTagged creative writing, inspiration, life, literature, music, people, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, writingLeave a comment

photograph by Brayden Law via Unsplash

the candle burns
the wind sits
in sails
nightfall is far
never or
now

— J.S.

Play Ball

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob…”

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020Posted in christmasTagged A Christmas Carol, christmas, homeless, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poverty, psychology, quotes, reading, sufferingLeave a comment

Photograph by Jon Tyson via Unsplash

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

— Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Man in the Mirror

We are stardust, we are golden and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.

November 2, 2020Posted in photographyTagged inspiration, life, music, people, philosophy, photography, psychology, ThoughtsLeave a comment

John Dominis, “Woodstock Music & Art Fair” (1969)

Woodstock

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems…

October 26, 2020Posted in poetryTagged books, couple, life, literature, love, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, relationshipsLeave a comment

E. Anthony Valainis, “A Thin Line” (Indianapolis Monthly Magazine, 1996)

SUCCESS is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed…

— Emily Dickinson

Cherish

A Painful Case

October 25, 2020Posted in booksTagged books, couple, inspiration, life, literature, love, memories, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, reading, relationshipsLeave a comment

Photograph by Etienne Boulanger via Unsplash

It was after nine o’clock when he left the shop. The night was cold and gloomy. He entered the Park by the first gate and walked along under the gaunt trees. He walked through the bleak alleys where they had walked four years before. She seemed to be near him in the darkness. At moments he seemed to feel her voice touch his ear, her hand touch his. He stood still to listen. Why had he withheld life from her?…He felt his moral nature falling to pieces.

— Joyce, from Dubliners

Mandolin Rain

Emily’s Epigram

October 16, 2020October 16, 2020Posted in poetryTagged life, literature, love, magazine ads, music, philosophy, photo composition, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, relationships, womanLeave a comment

cf. National Geographic Magazine (1952)

IT ’S all I have to bring to-day,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget,—
Some one the sun could tell,—
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.

— Emily Dickinson

The Pleasure Principle

Wheels, stay under me

October 15, 2020Posted in digital artTagged art, collage, couple, digital art, love, music, philosophy, photo composition, photography, photoshop, portrait, psychology, relationshipsLeave a comment

cf. Left: Wolves of Society (1915) Right: Cincinnati Magazine (1986)

Wheels

O gentlemen, the time of life is short!

October 12, 2020Posted in poetryTagged creative writing, life, literature, magazine ads, music, people, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, writing1 Comment

cf. Nation’s Business Magazine (1970)

the clock
unwinding
in the room
reminding
twenty
will not come again

— J.S.

Shooting Star

Who goes with Fergus?

September 10, 2020May 18, 2021Posted in literatureTagged films, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, reading, strong, ThoughtsLeave a comment

8½ (1963)

Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood’s woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.

And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love’s bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.

— Yeats

Return of the Mack

An important discovery

September 10, 2020May 18, 2021Posted in moviesTagged Achilles and the Tortoise, movies, music, philosophy, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, relationships, video, virtual reality, Zeno's ParadoxesLeave a comment

Welt am Draht (1973)

“Don’t Believe A Word” by Thin Lizzy

time and tide

August 28, 2020September 25, 2020Posted in poetryTagged inspiration, love, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, reading, relationships, romance, Shakespeare, ThoughtsLeave a comment

Charlotte Brooks, “Teenage driver Bill Kolb…driving his date in an MG convertible” (1958)

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie…

— Sonnet LXXIII

Top of the World

My wheel is in the dark

August 23, 2020September 25, 2020Posted in poetryTagged inspiration, life, literature, motivation, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

Image by Myriam Zilles via Pixabay

MY Wheel is in the dark,—
I cannot see a spoke,
Yet know its dripping feet
Go round and round.

My foot is on the tide—
An unfrequented road,
Yet have all roads
A “clearing” at the end.

Some have resigned the Loom,
Some in the busy tomb
Find quaint employ,
Some with new, stately feet
Pass royal through the gate,
Flinging the problem back at you and I.

— Emily Dickinson

Part of the Plan

dreamless

August 2, 2020September 25, 2020Posted in photographyTagged art, collage, digital art, life, literature, music, philosophy, photo composition, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychologyLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Toni Frissell, “Weeki Wachee spring, Florida” (underwater view of a woman, wearing a long gown, floating in water) (1947) and video (underwater seabed light) by motionstock via Pixabay (edited collage by me)

I placed my dream in a boat
and the boat into the sea;
then I ripped the sea with my hands
so that my dream would sink.

My hands are still wet
with the blue of the slashed waves,
and the color that runs from my fingers
colors the deserted sands.

The wind arrives from far away,
night bends itself with the cold;
under the water in a boat
my dream is dying away.

I’ll cry as much as necessary
to make the sea grow
so that my boat will sink to the bottom
and my dream disappear…

— Cecilia Meireles, “Song” (Tr. Giacomelli)

Jackie Blue

Emily’s Epistemology

July 23, 2020September 26, 2020Posted in poetryTagged identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. Maclean’s Magazine (1970)

ADVENTURE most unto itself
The Soul condemned to be;
Attended by a Single Hound—
Its own Identity.

— Emily Dickinson, The Single Hound

Elsewhere

“Wanting to Move”

July 21, 2020September 26, 2020Posted in poetryTagged inspiration, life, literature, love, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, quotes, reading, relationships, romanceLeave a comment

Image by Niek Verlaan via Pixabay

Continually, a bell rings in my heart.
I was supposed to go somewhere, to some other place,
Tense from the long wait—
Where do you go, will you take me
“With you, on your horses, down the river, with the flame
of your torches?”

They burst out laughing.
“A tree wanting to move from place to place!”
Startled, I look at myself—
A tree, wanting to move from place to place, a tree
Wanting to move? Am I then—
Born here, to die here
Even die here?
Who rings the bell, then, inside my heart?
Who tells me to go, inside my heart?
Who agitates me, continually, inside my heart?

— Vijaya Mukhopadhyay, “Wanting to Move”

“House of Spring”

July 13, 2020September 26, 2020Posted in poetryTagged diversity, inspiration, life, literature, music, people, philosophy, photo composition, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. Photographs via Unsplash and Pexels

Hundreds of open flowers
all come from
the one branch
Look
all their colors
appear in my garden
I open the clattering gate
and in the wind
I see
the spring sunlight
already it has reached
worlds without number

— Musō Soseki (Tr. Merwin & Shigematsu)

I Just Want To Celebrate

coping: perspective

June 30, 2020June 30, 2020Posted in booksTagged anxiety, books, coping skills, depression, inspiration, James Joyce, life, literature, mental illness, philosophy, photography, psychiatry, reading, ThoughtsLeave a comment

Photograph by Ioannis Ioannidis via Pixabay

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves…

— from Dubliners, James Joyce

“The Road Taken”

June 21, 2020June 21, 2020Posted in poetryTagged 1970s, creative writing, fashion, life, life choices, memories, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, writingLeave a comment

George C. Laur, “Students on Their Way to Senior High School…” (ca. 1975)

The Road Taken

Two hundred roads diverged from a yellow house,
And sorry I could not travel all two hundred
And be one traveler, briefly I stood
And looked down one and thought it was good;
And looked down the other one hundred and ninety nine
And thought they were mine.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Even knowing how way leads on to way losing track,
I never doubted that I could come back.
I am telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages ago:
Two hundred roads diverged —
I took number one ninety nine to my regret,
And that is what I can’t forget.

— J.S. (cf. Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”)

Broadway Hotel

The Dewey Decimal System

June 17, 2020September 26, 2020Posted in poetryTagged books, fashion, inspiration, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, reading, Shakespeare, womanLeave a comment

Thomas J. O’Halloran, “Young people working in Library” (1964)

From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive.
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire.
They are the books, the arts, the academes
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
Else none at all in ought proves excellent.

— Love’s Labor’s Lost

What A Wonderful World

Mrs. Sinico

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020Posted in booksTagged books, calling, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, purpose, quotesLeave a comment

Photograph by Kevin Jarrett via Unsplash

With almost maternal solicitude she urged him to let his nature open to the full…

— Joyce, from Dubliners

The Calling

carpe diem quam minimum credula postero

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020Posted in poetryTagged art, books, carpe diem, fashion, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychologyLeave a comment

Party at The Met, ca. 1960s

LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

— A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad

BELL & JAMES — Livin’ It Up (Friday Night)

Thalatta! Thalatta!

April 9, 2020September 28, 2020Posted in booksTagged books, calling, gift, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, psychology, purpose, quotesLeave a comment

Photograph by Radu Florin via Unsplash

And when all had reached the summit, then indeed they fell to embracing one another, and generals and captains as well, with tears in their eyes. And on a sudden, at the bidding of some one or other, the soldiers began to bring stones and to build a great cairn…

— Xenophon, Anabasis

Doorstep

“Santayana wants me, Lord, I can’t go back there!”

April 9, 2020September 28, 2020Posted in poetryTagged creative writing, fiction, humor, literature, music, parody, people, philosopher, philosophy, poems, poetry, satire, writingLeave a comment

“PHILOSOPHICAL” DIALOGUES BETWEEN SOCRATES (S) AND AN IMAGINARY INTERLOCUTOR (ii):

S: Wittgenstein at a restaurant or we can dine at home.

ii: Bertrand, can you Russell up some dinner for me?

S: Francis, Bacon sure smells great when it’s cooking doesn’t it?

ii: That hits Lamarck.

S: I Goethe go.

ii: Rousseau long!

S: Let’s play Heidegger seek!

ii: I Kant find you!

S: Hegel, what’s going on?

ii: We were supposed to go Schopenhauers ago!

S: Don’t put Descartes before the horse! We’ve Spinoza this many times before.

ii: John, Locke the front door and we’ll get going.

S: Foucault? I didn’t hear the phone ring.

ii: Hume are you referring to?

S: Camus come over to visit today?

ii: I’m Newton town so I’m not sure where to go.

S: I’ll Nietzsche in front of my house. Drive Pascal and then take the next left. Husserl can you get here?

ii: Is your house Nietzsche and clean?

S: Rousseau it is. I really Fichte this place up. It looks great. Kierkegaard-en I told you about with lots of flowers.

ii: If that’s Sartre than I’m a Hottentot.

S: Santayana wants me, Lord, I can’t go back there!

ii: Don’t Thoreau your life away!

Indiana Wants Me

Out of your whole life give but one moment!

March 23, 2020March 23, 2020Posted in poetryTagged couple, inspiration, life, literature, love, memories, music, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology, reading, relationships, romanceLeave a comment

Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Inc., Beginning to Date (1953)

Out of your whole life give but one moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, – so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, – condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection’s endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense –
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me –
Me – sure that despite of time future, time past, –
This tick of our life-time’s one moment you love me!
How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet –
The moment eternal – just that and no more –
When ecstasy’s utmost we clutch at the core
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut and lips meet!

— Robert Browning, “Now”

Hesperide Summer

March 7, 2020September 28, 2020Posted in poetryTagged calling, identity, life, literature, loneliness, music, philosophy, photography, photos, poems, poetry, psychology, ThoughtsLeave a comment

Herbert L. Spencer, “Mere Man” (ca. 1934)

EXCEPT the smaller size, no Lives are round,
These hurry to a sphere, and show, and end.
The larger, slower grow, and later hang—
The Summers of Hesperides are long.

— Emily Dickinson

Lonely Weekend

depression mantra

February 27, 2020February 27, 2020Posted in digital artTagged bipolar disorder, collage, depression, depressive disorder, determination, digital art, inspiration, life, perseverance, philosophy, photography, psychiatry, psychology, speechesLeave a comment

cf. edited collage featuring photograph by Sasha Freemind (man at window) via Unsplash

never give in, never give in, never, never, never…

— Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941, Harrow School

a fever, longing still

February 21, 2020September 28, 2020Posted in poetryTagged dancing, life, literature, lost love, love, memories, movies, music, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology, romance, ThoughtsLeave a comment

Hot Rod Girl (1956)

In these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav’nly-pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing melancholy reigns;
What means this tumult…?
Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?

— Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

I Want You Bad

for all dishevelled wandering stars

January 30, 2020September 28, 2020Posted in poetryTagged anxiety, collage, depression, digital art, GIF, inspiration, literature, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts1 Comment

cf. photograph by Alex Iby via Unsplash and

error46146, Subway Timelapse Experiment – YouTube (edited collage)

And brood on hopes and fear no more…

— W. B. Yeats, Who goes with Fergus?

Feelin’ Stronger Every Day

What adults never tell you (about growing old)

June 8, 2019September 29, 2020Posted in poetryTagged aging, inspiration, life, memories, music, philosophy, photography, poem, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, writing, youth1 Comment

LIFE, 1967

What adults never tell you (about growing old)

I’m still there

— J.S.

The Watch Man

To The Same

May 30, 2019May 30, 2019Posted in poetryTagged art, determination, digital art, illness, inspiration, life, literature, perseverance, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychologyLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Andrew Neel via Unsplash (edited)

Yet I argue not
Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward…

— Milton, “To the Same”

strong in that hour

January 28, 2019September 29, 2020Posted in inspirationTagged determination, Faith, illness, inspiration, life, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, photoshop, psychology, Spirituality, sufferingLeave a comment

cf. photograph by rawpixel via Unsplash

“…and he prayed that God would strengthen us when the hard time comes on us; as it will come for all of us; as it came to Job — that we’d be strong in that hour…”

— Garrison Keillor, More News from Lake Wobegon — Hope: Let Us Pray

a persistent question

January 15, 2019May 23, 2019Posted in booksTagged books, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, reading, writingLeave a comment

Photograph by Martino Pietropoli via Unsplash

I want my place! my own place! my true place in the world! my proper sphere! my thing to do, which Nature intended me to perform when she fashioned me thus awry, and which I have vainly sought all my lifetime!

— Hawthorne, The Intelligence Office

my lost self

January 10, 2019January 12, 2019Posted in poetryTagged collage, digital art, inspiration, life, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, writing1 Comment

cf. photograph by Cherry Laithang via Unsplash (edited collage)

like Antaeus
drifting in the darkest night
searching for my long lost self —
my strength
my spirit
myself
and then I touch ground
again

— J.S.

Van Halen – 6/12/81 – Oakland Coliseum

“He gathered together a few shillings and wired them to Trieste…”

November 6, 2018September 30, 2020Posted in photographyTagged books, charity, empathy, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

Pasadena (Calif.) Audubon Society, “Teaching Children To Love The Birds” (ca. 1922)

He gathered together a few shillings and wired them to Trieste; on Christmas eve John Joyce produced a few more to wire to Nora, quoting Vergil almost accurately, “Non ignara malorum miseris succurrere disco.”*

*“Having suffered myself, I know how to help those in trouble.”

— Richard Ellmann, James Joyce

Poem to my 18-year-old self

October 8, 2018October 8, 2018Posted in poetryTagged aging, carpe diem, inspiration, life, literature, memories, philosophy, poem, poems, poetry, psychology, reading, writingLeave a comment

These sharp Springs
Matter most
After years
Will be time enough to sleep
Carefulness and tears

Now while life is raw and new,
Drink it clear, drink it deep!
Let the moonlight’s lunacy
Tear away your cautions…

Never fear,
Age will catch you…

Only graven in your soul
After all the rest is gone
There will be ecstasies,
These alone

— John Weaver, To Youth (excerpt)

“empiricism”

October 5, 2018October 1, 2020Posted in poetryTagged life, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts, writer, writingLeave a comment

cf. TV commercial

empiricism

Shakespeare
certainly told him —
a dream,

a dream
is all

— J.S.

Paperlate

The furnace in which his soul was forged

October 4, 2018October 4, 2018Posted in digital artTagged animation, art, collage, digital art, life, music, philosophy, photo composition, photography, photoshop, psychology, suffering, ThoughtsLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Erik Witsoe via Unsplash (edited) and video by Vimeo-Free-Videos via Pixabay (edited)

J. S. Bach, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein performed by Monica Chew

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