What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
Realize you have no control of what happens in the world, but complete control of your perception of it.
PROMPT: Improvement
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Category Archives: Philosophy
PROMPT: Brands
What are your favorite brands and why?
The ones that offer the best value for the money at a given time. I have no brand loyalty, and — in fact — find it to be an absurd concept. It’s corporate hacking of humanity’s proclivity for tribalism in service of profit-maximization.
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PROMPT: Elections
Do you vote in political elections?
Not as religiously as I did in my youth. Counter to the general trend of younger people hollering and protesting but not showing up to the polls, and thus not influencing change because politicians are cued into to the older crowd that tends to show up hell or high water.
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“Beginning My Studies” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
Beginning my studies, the first step pleas'd me so much,
The mere fact, consciousness -- these forms -- the power of motion,
The least insect or animal -- the senses -- eyesight -- love;
The first step, I say, aw'd me and pleas'd me so much,
I have hardly gone, and hardly wish'd to go, any further,
But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in ecstatic songs.
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Kailasa of Ellora [Blank Verse]
They carved a temple in a mountainside,
Cutting away all rock that wasn't temple,
Chipping from the top down and outside-in,
Until some domed stone segregated sky
From inner sanctum and all its idols,
And it has stood over twelve hundred years,
And it will surely stand twelve hundred more,
But someday it'll be a mountain again.
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“Tacit” [Poetry Style #12] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]
Without a word,
The gist is grasped.
With no wails or soft sobs,
Sadness spreads heart-to-heart.
There is an enigmatic Prime Mover
With whom each of us either sinks or floats.
Dregs of rustic wine in a fine strainer.
Buds on the cusp of bloom turned back by cold.
Dust motes spreading by Brownian motion.
Sea spume floating and tumbling onto shore.
Shallow, deep, cohering, or scattering.
Of ten thousand, any sample will do.
NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a translation of the twelfth of the twenty-four poems. Translated titles vary: Herbert Giles entitled this one “Conservation,” whereas Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping called it “The Implicit Style.”
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BOOKS: “Gothic Tales” by Marquis de Sade [Trans. by Margaret Crossland]
Gothic Tales by Marquis de SadeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Release Date: September 3, 2024
This collection of short fiction is an excellent entry point for the reader wishing to be introduced to the philosophy and literary stylings of the Marquis de Sade. It is less visceral and explicitly violent than the works for which Sade is most famous (i.e. Justine, 120 Days of Sodom, and Philosophy in the Boudoir.) While it does deal in libidinal issues throughout and has a few stories that are explicitly erotica (notably the last couple pieces,) it never ventures up to or over whatever thin line separates erotica from pornography.
While all the pieces share Sade’s signature philosophy and interests, it is in other ways a quite diverse collection of writings. The first piece, “Eugenie De Franval,” is a novella that takes up about half the book, and it is followed by a piece that, in today’s parlance, might be called flash fiction, “The Horse-Chestnut Flower.” Pieces such as “Eugenie De Franval” and “Florville and Courval” are tragedies while the comedies include: “Emilie De Tourville,”[granted with grim elements] “The Husband Who Played Priest,” “Room for Two,” and “The Self-Made Cuckold.” Those last three – as well as “The Horse-Chestnut Flower”– are comedic in a modern sense, not just the literary sense.
I can’t say how much of the difference in tone and intensity of these pieces from Sade’s other stories is owed to the selected source material and how much is owed to translation and editorial decisions, but it makes for a read that is more intriguing in story and less shocking and disturbing than many other translations of Sade’s work.
I enjoyed these stories. They had many clever twists and turns that I don’t recall experiencing in Sade’s novels. Several stories rely on a great deal of deus ex machina coincidences, but I think that works just fine — particularly in the more humorous stories. I’d highly recommend this for readers looking to ease into the work of the Marquis de Sade.
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“Renunciant’s Song” by Su Shi [w/ Audio]
The night is clear, even pristine --
A nightscape in silver moonlight.
"Yes, please! Pour me a bowl of wine.
Don't skimp! take it up to the brim."
And why should I chase wealth and fame
When it is sure to end in vain?
Events pass like a horse's sigh,
A spark on stone, or dream travel.
I can put out my ideas,
But who'll accept them as the truth?
Why shouldn't I just live happily
And innocently, like a child?
I could go back to carefree days
When life's trifles weren't torturesome.
Just me, my lute, a pot of wine,
And the stories drawn by the clouds.
NOTES: Song Dynasty Poet, Su Shi, was also known as Su Dongpo. The translated title of this poem also varies. In Deep, Deep the Courtyard, translated by Xu Yuanchong, it is entitled, “Song of Pilgrimage.”
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Harmony [Free Verse]
Tap the resonance
And vibrate at the rate
Of those eternal emanations --
The thrumming under-pulse
Of the Universe.
The ripples that can't be heard
Or felt haptically,
But must be tuned into
To feel, otherwise.
Downshift what is you --
Put your Self into idle.
Don't panic
As you start to slide --
Frictionlessly,
A lack of friction that's
Unfamiliar & Uncomfortable,
But which will be the way
One's worldline plays out --
Effortlessly -- to the end.
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“Natural” [Poetry Style #10] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]
Stoop anywhere and pluck it up,
But if you look 'round - it's not there.
Any path may lead you to it.
A stroke of the brush becomes Spring,
And the flowers are in full bloom. --
It's like seeing a new year dawn:
Snatch at it and you won't have it.
Seize it by force and you'll be poorer.
Be like the old mountain hermit --
Like duckweed gathered by stream flow.
Find calm amidst storms of feeling
By knowing Heaven's harmonies.
NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a translation of the tenth of the twenty-four poems.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 