Night Swimming [Free Verse]

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Trudging into lapping waves
   On a dim and dusky eve.

Chest deep
   One pops up, pressing one's chest 
      Onto the water,
   And swims toward a distant 
      Silhouetted rock outcrop.

But it doesn't stay silhouetted.

Soon, one is heading into
      A grand, black abyss,
   There is no shape in this world,
   Only the feel of limbs -- pulling & kicking.

Sounds grow ever more feeble --
      And ever more rare --
   Until the smell of seawater becomes
      A bright and vivid sensory experience --
         Layered & textured.

Rolling onto one's back, one can see
   Patches of sparkling stars
      In the cloud gaps. 

One lays upon the waves --
   Feeling as though one conforms to them 
       As one floats like a piece of driftwood --
   And sees the twinkle of distant stars,
      In a world too vast to understand.

DAILY PHOTO: Monkey Beach Monolith

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BOOKS: “Live Like a Philosopher” by Massimo Pigliucci, Gregory Lopez, and Meredith Alexander Kunz

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Live Like A Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy LifeLive Like A Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy Life by Gregory Lopez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Hachette / Headline Press

This book is for a person in the market for a philosophy of life, but who only knows that they want a system rooted in Ancient Greece. While the coauthors are all Stoics, the book explores twelve additional philosophies and gives each roughly equal consideration. In addition to the expected systems, such as Epicureanism, Stoicism, Platonism, and Skepticism, there are also several lesser known or defunct philosophies such as Cyrenaic hedonism, Cynicism, Pyrrhonism, and Megarianism.

The book is organized into four parts. The first examines schools that value pleasure (Cyrenaicism and Epicureanism,) the next investigates schools that focus on virtue and character (Aristotelian Peripatetics, Stoicism, Cynicism, and Political Platonism,) the penultimate focuses on systems encouraging doubt or caution in knowledge (Socratic philosophy, Academic Skepticism, Sophism, and Pyrrhonism,) and the last set are posed as questionable candidates for a life philosophy (i.e. those of the Pythagoreans, Megarians, and Neoplatonists.) The last three schools are questioned on various grounds, including: is enough known about what its practitioners believed, did they live their philosophy or just ruminate on it, and could the system be considered a full-fledged philosophy (as opposed to a stance on a specific issue or issues.)

The book is presented in self-help fashion, with each chapter ending in a set of exercises designed to help the reader build practical understanding of each school. The goal of these exercises (as comes together in an appendix) is to help the reader determine which philosophy is best suited to their disposition and inclinations.

I enjoyed this book. The authors use stories to convey ideas and the book’s readability is kept inviting to general readers. If you’re interested in better understanding Greek schools of philosophy, I’d recommend the book as quick and easy way to get a better grasp.

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“Loss and Gain” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]

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    When I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with what attained,
  Little room do I find for pride.

     I am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good intent
  Has fallen short or been turned aside. 

     But who shall dare
To measure loss and gain in this wise?
Defeat may be victory in disguise;
  The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.

PROMPT: Fruits

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Daily writing prompt
List your top 5 favorite fruits.
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As my personal philosophy precludes having stable favorites, I’ll go with the fruits I had at breakfast (in no particular order): Mango, Banana, Leechee, Watermelon, and Cantaloupe.

Stout Clouds [Haiku]

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stout white clouds
 drift low over mountains
  as if they might crash.

DAILY PHOTO: Church of Maca, Peru

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“Lament I” [感遇一] by Zhang Jiuling [张九龄]

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A lone goose flies in from the sea,
 Not daring to land in water.
 Glimpsing a pair of Kingfisher --
 Nested Three Pearl Tree squatters --
 It asks, "High up in that rare tree
 Of gold spheres, are you not afraid?
 Fancy clothes incur points and jeers
 And those high up are harshly weighed.
 As I roam dark rivers and hills,
 Envious hunters give me chills."

This is the first of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] and it is also the first of a quartet of poems. The original poem in Simplified Chinese:

孤鸿海上来， 池潢不敢顾； 
侧见双翠鸟， 巢在三珠树。 
矫矫珍木巅， 得无金丸惧？ 
美服患人指， 高明逼神恶。 
今我游冥冥， 弋者何所慕？

PROMPT: One Small Improvement

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Daily writing prompt
What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
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Use a timer to create distraction-free zones in your day. When you’re working on a task, set the timer for some reasonable time (say, 1 hour.) [Do not try to do many hours at a time, you should move and ruminate on a regular basis.] Until the timer goes off, social media doesn’t exist. YouTube doesn’t exist. Snacks do not exist. Visitors do not exist. Phone calls don’t exist. Texts don’t exist. Only the task at hand exists, and only dire emergency should be allowed to interfere. This facilitates Flow.

City Winter [Haiku]

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trees, straight & bare, 
 line the boulevard. one leaf
  blows across the walk.