philosophy – John Sapiro

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, 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, 2020April 9, 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, 2020April 9, 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, 2020March 7, 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, 2020February 21, 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, 2020January 30, 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, 2019June 8, 2019Posted 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, 2019January 28, 2019Posted 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, writingLeave a 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, 2018November 6, 2018Posted 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 5, 2018Posted 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

We start believing now that we can be who we are

September 26, 2018September 26, 2018Posted in musicTagged animation, art, fashion, identity, individuality, mashup, music, philosophy, psychology, retro, TV commercials1 Comment

cf. TV commercial

Grease by Frankie Valli

They Will Never Know

September 21, 2018September 21, 2018Posted in poetryTagged identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychologyLeave a comment

John Dillwyn Llewelyn, “After the Storm” (ca. 1853)

I fit for them,
I seek the dark till I am thorough fit.
The labor is a solemn one,
With this sufficient sweet —
That abstinence as mine produce
A purer good for them,
If I succeed, —
If not, I had
The transport of the Aim.

— Emily Dickinson

They Will Never Know

inner strength

September 20, 2018September 20, 2018Posted in inspirationTagged art, coping skills, determination, illness, inspiration, life, meditation, music, perseverance, philosophy, psychologyLeave a comment

James Montgomery Flagg, “You” (Life Publishing Co., 1906)

Recovery…may take time and may require some big adjustments and perhaps a great deal of inner strength.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn, “World of Relaxation”

Coldcut Featuring Lisa Stansfield – “People Hold On” (Dj “S” Bootleg “Thank U” Remix by Dj “S”)

Spring and Fall

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018Posted in poetryTagged collage, digital art, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, Thoughts2 Comments

cf. Carol M. Highsmith, “Tremont Street, Boston” (between 1980 and 2006) and
video by Coverr-Free-Footage via Pixabay (edited)

Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

— Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall

If These Walls Could Speak

Invictus

September 3, 2018September 3, 2018Posted in poetryTagged art, collage, determination, digital art, inspiration, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, psychologyLeave a comment

cf. Tom Hubbard, “Fountain Square…” (1973) and video by tmeier1964 via Pixabay (edited)

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.

— William Ernest Henley, Invictus (excerpt)

Don’t Stop Believin’

You’re gonna need security

September 1, 2018September 1, 2018Posted in inspirationTagged books, calling, gift, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, quotes, writingLeave a comment

Risdon Tillery, “A young draftsman drawing plans for a house and developing his favorite hobby…” (detail) (1944)

“What career do you intend to take up, Mr. Joyce?” he asked. “The career of letters.” The dean persisted, “Isn’t there some danger of perishing of inanition in the meantime?” And Joyce, as his brother recorded, said this was one of the perils, but there were prizes too.

— Richard Ellmann, James Joyce

Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an author, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a significant look, said, “You had better buy a porter’s knot.”

— Boswell’s Life Of Johnson

Finally Found A Home

Who Goes with Fergus?

August 28, 2018August 28, 2018Posted in poetryTagged 3D, life, literature, music, parody, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, satire, stereographLeave a comment

cf. London Stereoscopic Company, “Jeames at Home!” (ca. 1860-1870)

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.

— W. B. Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?

Return Of The Mack (C&J Extended Mix) by Mark Morrison

college epiphany (a true story)

August 22, 2018August 22, 2018Posted in poetryTagged college, education, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, photoshop, poems, poetry, school, writer, writingLeave a comment

college epiphany (a true story)

at precisely 10 o’clock he
(a distinguished professor in the history department)
closed the door and walked briskly to the lectern

“There is one song…,”

he whirled on us
in an exaggeratedly sotto voce
stage whisper

“that changed…,”

he crouched forward dramatically
leaning into the first row of seats
then paced back and forth across the front of the classroom
like Holmes to our Watsons
his hands in a sweeping gesture across the entire spellbound auditorium

“…EVERYTHING!”

My Sharona was now receding into the dim, dark, distant past
quod erat demonstrandum!

— J.S.

Have You Never Been Mellow — Olivia Newton-John

Mercy Mercy Me

August 6, 2018August 6, 2018Posted in photographyTagged animals, ecology, environment, inspiration, music, nature, philosophy, photography, quotes, reading, writingLeave a comment

Jim Matchinga, “Roots” (Cincinnati Magazine, 1980)

Now this interconnection or adaptation of all created things to each and of each to all, means that each simple substance has relations which express all the others, and, consequently, that it is a perpetual living mirror of the universe.

— Leibniz, The Monadology

“Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye

Forty years is a long time to be misunderstood

August 3, 2018August 3, 2018Posted in musicTagged belief in yourself, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, loneliness, movies, music, philosophy, psychology, talent1 Comment

I remember happier days…
My joking friends well they all moved away.

Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club — “English Garden”

I slumbered with your poems

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018Posted in poetryTagged inspiration, life, literature, loss, memories, music, philosophy, photography, photos, poems, poetry, relationships, telephone boothLeave a comment

Paris, August, 1984

Nothing should remain unsaid between us

— Robert Frost, To E. T. (excerpt)

The Blue Distance by Mary Chapin Carpenter

The Auroras of Autumn

July 28, 2018May 10, 2019Posted in poetryTagged aging, choices, failure, life, literature, loss, memories, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetryLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Lefty Kasdaglis via Unsplash (edit)

Farewell to an idea . . .
A darkness gathers though it does not fall
And the whiteness grows less vivid on the wall.

— Wallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn (excerpt)

I sat upon the shore fishing, with the arid plain behind me

July 25, 2018July 25, 2018Posted in poetryTagged aging, life, literature, memories, music, nostalgia, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, writer, writingLeave a comment

Ian Livesey, “Rainy rainy Manchester” (detail) (2015)

On Margate Sands
I can’t stop connecting
everything with everything
the present
with the past
the broken fingernails of dirty hands.
To Carthage I came, once, many years ago
burning
now dull roots with spring rain
stirring

— J.S.

Say Goodbye to Hollywood

Not Troy

July 25, 2018April 15, 2019Posted in poetryTagged books, collage, digital art, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology2 Comments

cf. photograph by Kyle Popineau via unsplash and Abul Haque, “Students Arriving by Schoolbus…” (1976)

Up from the earth, O weary head!
This is not Troy, about, above—
Not Troy…

— Euripides, The Trojan Women (Tr. Murray)

“And sweetest in the gale is heard…”

June 21, 2018June 21, 2018Posted in poetryTagged art, inspiration, life, literature, music, paintings, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, reading, writingLeave a comment

Jerome B. Thompson, “A Pic Nick in the Woods of New England” (detail) (ca. 1855)

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all…

— Emily Dickinson

“All Right” by Christopher Cross

“Now Close the Windows”

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018Posted in poetryTagged life, literature, movies, music, philosophy, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, reading, writing2 Comments

Le feu follet (1963)

Now close the windows and hush all the fields;
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
It will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

— Robert Frost

“It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” — Alison Krauss

“Who has the most matches?”

June 19, 2018June 19, 2018Posted in booksTagged books, fiction, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, writingLeave a comment

Ernst Halberstadt, “City Hall Plaza–A Pleasant Setting for Rest and Conversation” (1973)

—He’s pretty well on, professor MacHugh said in a low voice.

—Seems to be, J. J. O’Molloy said, taking out a cigarettecase in murmuring meditation, but it is not always as it seems. Who has the most matches?

— Joyce, Ulysses

“Love Of The Common Man” — Todd Rundgren

“The problem with life is that it’s too daily.”

June 14, 2018June 14, 2018Posted in poetryTagged life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, writingLeave a comment

Horacio Villalobos, “Housewife in the Kitchen…” (ca. 1975)

“The problem with life is that it’s too daily.”

— Sarah E. Sapiro

At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Out of the window perilously spread
Her drying combinations touched by the sun’s last rays,
On the divan are piled (at night her bed)
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest…

— T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land

“Sweet Bird” — Joni Mitchell

Mindfulness

June 9, 2018June 9, 2018Posted in booksTagged books, coping skills, inspiration, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, photography, psychiatry, psychology1 Comment

photograph by RyanMcGuire via Pixabay

Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.

— Joyce, Ulysses

“No Lookin’ Back” — Michael McDonald

Tender is the night… but here there is no light

June 8, 2018June 8, 2018Posted in booksTagged books, depression, life, literature, mental illness, music, philosophy, photography, psychiatry, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

photograph by Forrest Cavale via Unsplash (edit)

Dick tried to rest — the struggle would come presently at home and he might have to sit a long time, restating the universe for her… But the brilliance, the versatility of madness is akin to the resourcefulness of water seeping through, over and around a dike. It requires the united front of many people to work against it… In a tired way, he planned that they would again resume the régime relaxed a year before…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night

“Compassion” – Todd Rundgren

Zeno In Love

June 3, 2018June 3, 2018Posted in moviesTagged Achilles and the Tortoise, love, movies, music, philosophy, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, relationships, video, Zeno's ParadoxesLeave a comment

Welt am Draht (1973)

“Don’t Believe A Word” by Thin Lizzy

The Myth Of Sisyphus

May 27, 2018July 15, 2018Posted in booksTagged books, determination, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes1 Comment

photograph by Kristopher Roller via Unsplash

All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing…There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night…Thus, convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eager to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling…

— Camus, The Myth Of Sisyphus

A Modern Aeneid

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018Posted in poetryTagged books, digital art, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, quotes, sufferingLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Gabriel Laroche (edit) via Unsplash

Muse, tell me why, for what attaint of her deity, or in what vexation, did the Queen of heaven drive one so excellent in goodness to circle through so many afflictions, to face so many toils? Is anger so fierce in celestial spirits?

— Virgil, Aeneid

“Carry On My Wayward Son” by Samantha Loren

“In Time of Storm”

May 9, 2018May 9, 2018Posted in poetryTagged coping, determination, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology1 Comment

cf. video by go_see via Pixabay

Brightness

and with good luck
we will reach the harbor
and black earth

We sailors have no will
in big blasts of wind,
hoping for dry land

and to sail
our cargo
floating about

Many
labors
until dry land

—Sappho, “In Time of Storm” (Tr. Barnstone)

“Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” – New England

Call me Ishmael.

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018Posted in booksTagged fiction, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, night, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, writingLeave a comment

photograph by Mark Jefferson Paraan via Unsplash

Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

— Melville, Moby Dick

Electric Light Orchestra – “Last Train To London”

Who is it that can tell me who I am?

April 12, 2018May 23, 2019Posted in literatureTagged books, identity, individuality, inspiration, King Lear, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poetry, psychology, Shakespeare, work1 Comment

Photograph by Bruce Mars via Pexels

KING LEAR:
Doth any here know me? This is not Lear.
Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied—Ha! Waking? ’Tis not so.
Who is it that can tell me who I am?

FOOL:
Lear’s shadow.

Straight Ahead

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018Posted in booksTagged determination, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, perseverance, philosophy, photography, poetry, psychology, quotesLeave a comment

Photograph by Easton Oliver via Unsplash

His railings and outbursts expressed not the conviction of failure but the passion for success. They touched off his disappointment, his injured self-esteem, his wounded pride, without ultimately concealing his determination to persevere — his finally unshakeable will to achieve. The strain of remonstrative self-pity and pessimism in Conrad was an overlay to the iron in him.

—Leo Gurko, “Joseph Conrad: Giant in Exile”

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

—Emerson, Self Reliance

Aerosmith – “Make It” (2007)

More Light

April 8, 2018April 8, 2018Posted in booksTagged books, fiction, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, readingLeave a comment

Tom Hubbard, “…Sale of Donated Books…” (1973)

For me that white figure in the stillness of coast and sea seemed to stand at the heart of a vast enigma. The twilight was ebbing fast from the sky above his head, the strip of sand had sunk already under his feet, he himself appeared no bigger than a child — then only a speck, a tiny white speck, that seemed to catch all the light left in a darkened world. . . . And, suddenly, I lost him. . . .

—Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

“More Light” – Utopia

Barter

March 31, 2018March 31, 2018Posted in poetryTagged art, collage, digital art, identity, individuality, inspiration, literature, music, philosophy, photo composition, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry1 Comment

cf. LIFE, 1968 and Vincent van Gogh, “Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat” (1887)

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.

—Sara Teasdale, Barter (excerpt)

“Crazy Crazy Nights” by Kiss

I’m out here in the meadow

March 14, 2018May 30, 2019Posted in booksTagged aging, fiction, identity, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, psychology, reading, writingLeave a comment

TV Commercial

All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, “Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle—it is himself! Welcome home again, old neighbor—Why, where have you been these twenty long years?”

—Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle

Loomings

March 3, 2018March 3, 2018Posted in booksTagged calling, coping, identity, individuality, inspiration, literature, meaning, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, purpose, reading, writingLeave a comment

LSE Library, “Student in the library, 1981”

CHAPTER 1. Loomings.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul…then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

—Herman Melville, Moby Dick

“Keep Your Head Up” by Ben Howard

Renaissance

February 23, 2018February 23, 2018Posted in literatureTagged aging, books, inspiration, life, love, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, relationships, Shakespeare, writingLeave a comment

Tom Hubbard, “…Troupes Dancing in the Square Are Joined by Young-In-Heart Spectator” (1973)

Thou shalt find
That I’ll resume the shape which thou dost think
I have cast off forever…

—King Lear

“Love Is Alive” – Gary Wright

How to Regain Your Soul

January 8, 2018January 8, 2018Posted in poetryTagged inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, poems, poetry3 Comments

Horacio Villalobos, “…a Member of the Parish Is Shown Playing a Guitar at a Folk Mass…” (1975)

Come down Canyon Creek trail on a summer
afternoon
that one place where the valley floor opens out.
You will see
the white butterflies…

—William Stafford, How to Regain Your Soul (excerpt)

Kennedy Rose – “Some Walls”

A Turning Point

January 7, 2018January 18, 2018Posted in poetryTagged books, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, readingLeave a comment

cf. Photograph by The Creative Exchange via Unsplash

One sound is saying, ‘You are not worth tuppence,
But neither is anybody. Watch it! Be severe.’
The other says, ‘Go with it! Give and swerve.
You are everything you feel beside the river.’

—Seamus Heaney, Casting and Gathering (excerpt)

“This above all: to thine own self be true”

December 31, 2017January 18, 2018Posted in digital artTagged collage, digital art, identity, inspiration, life, music, philosophy, photo composition, photography, photoshop, psychologyLeave a comment

cf. Photograph by Mike Wilson via Unsplash and Nationaal Archief, “Testing guitar in a music shop…” (1957)

Part One: Life

December 11, 2017December 11, 2017Posted in digital artTagged 3D, art, collage, identity, landscape, literature, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetry, psychology, stereograph, womanLeave a comment

cf. Library Company of Philadelphia, “Frankford Creek and Vicinity, Winter” (ca. late 19th century) and
photograph by Peter Gonzalez via Unsplash

Ashes denote that fire was;
Respect the grayest pile
For the departed creature’s sake
That hovered there awhile.

Fire exists the first in light,
And then consolidates,—
Only the chemist can disclose
Into what carbonates.

Emily Dickinson

Self-Reliance

November 19, 2017January 18, 2018Posted in digital artTagged art, collage, identity, individuality, inspiration, lighthouse, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, psychology, quotes, reading, womanLeave a comment

cf. photograph by Will Wilson (edited) via Unsplash

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string…”

—Emerson

Journal, Page 1: Walt Whitman

November 17, 2017January 18, 2018Posted in poetryTagged books, bus, collage, digital art, identity, inspiration, leaves of grass, literature, music, philosophy, photography, photoshop, poems, poetryLeave a comment

cf. Esther Bubley, “A Greyhound bus trip…” (1943)

“At The College Art Gallery, October, 1981”

October 21, 2017January 18, 2018Posted in poetryTagged college, education, finding yourself, identity, individuality, life, literature, memories, music, philosophy, poems, poetry, writers, writingLeave a comment

cf. Home Movie (1947)

at the college art gallery, october, 1981

the ultrablue sunset sky
radiated around the white church spire
I walked into the art gallery
because I was a romantic
fair creature of an hour
was looking at chippendale furniture
but I shall never look upon thee more
my footfalls echoed around decorative arts
down the passage which I did not take
another door was opening
into another rose-garden
this fire is now my quarry
vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore

—J.S.

“You must tell me something that you are sure is true”

October 18, 2017January 18, 2018Posted in literatureTagged letters, life, music, philosophy, photos, psychology, quotes, writers, writingLeave a comment

William Strode, “Magazines And Newspapers Litter The Intersection Of Sixth & Broadway…” (1972)

You must tell me something that you are sure is true —
I don’t care much what it may be, I will take your word for it.
Things get into a muddle with me…

—Mary Temple, letter to John C. Gray

“Nay, if I mistake not, unity itself divided by zero equals infinity.”

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017Posted in photographyTagged books, childhood, growing up, identity, individuality, inspiration, life, music, philosophy, psychology, quotes, self-confidence, youthLeave a comment

Jack Corn, “The Cool Morning Air Condenses a Boy’s Breath as He Walks Along a Coal Car on His Way to School…” (1974)

“Nay, if I mistake not, unity itself divided by zero equals infinity.”

—Thomas Carlyle

“Flaming Youth” by Kiss

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