i walk through the graveyard,
subtracting birth from death dates
to determine age at death.
there’s a correlation between
speed of calculation &
the degree of tragedy.
the faster i can determine an age,
the more disconcerting the death:
like the girl — 1990 to 2008.
the 89 year old man who survived WWII
service in the Burmese jungle
doesn’t raise as many questions.
a still dragonfly
looks perched & ready,
but then falls dead.
Death is nothing to us, because a body that has been dispersed into elements experiences no sensations, and the absence of sensation is nothing to us.
principal doctrines – No. 2
Nothing is enough to someone for whom what is enough is too little.
Vatican Sayings – No. 68
Of all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.
Principal Doctrines – No. 27
Don’t spoil what you have by desiring what you don’t have; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.
vatican sayings – No. 35
No pleasure is a bad thing in itself, but some pleasures are only obtainable at the cost of excessive troubles.
Principal doctrines – No. 8
And Five Honorable Mentions:
[T]here are an infinite number of worlds, some like this world, others unlike it.
Letter to Herodotus
Dreams have neither a divine nature nor a prophetic power, but they are the result of images that impact upon us.
vatican sayings – No. 24
It is pointless for a person to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
vatican sayings – No. 65
But one must not be so much in love with the explanation by a single way as wrongly to reject all others…
Letter to pythocles
Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.
Letter to Menoeceus
SOURCE: Epicurus. 2021. The Fundamental Books of Epicurus: Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Letters. Trans. by: Robert Drew Hicks & R. Medeiros. Independently published on Amazon. 45pp.
dying by the second
from a starving brain;
each new panicked moment
narrows down the frame.
now, my world is dwindling,
shrinking to a dot:
like TV's used to do
when you shut them off.
Now, this poem is done.
there's nothing past one pel --
except for oblivion:
no sight, no sound, no smell.
In the drowsy dark caves of the mind / dreams build their nest with fragments / dropped from day’s caravan.
From the solemn gloom of the temple / children run out to sit in the dust, / God watches them play / and forgets the priest.
The wind tries to take the flame by storm / only to blow it out.
The same sun is newly born in new lands / in a ring of endless dawns.
When death comes and whispers to me, / “Thy days are ended.” / let me say to him, “I have lived in love / and not in mere time.” / He will ask, “Will thy songs remain?” / I shall say, “I know not, but this I know / that often when I sang I found my eternity.
Fireflies by Rabindranath Tagore is in the public domain and can be read at sites such as:
Fireflies is available at PoetryVerse
grand monuments,
overgrown with moss & weeds,
for Dead long forgotten.
Sun, Rain, Wind,
& other agents of wear
that tear down ancient stones
one grain at a time,
eroding symbolic rocks
carved with symbols
that meant something
to people in days of yore.
And they mean something
to people today,
but whether those meanings
match is another question...
Because our understanding
of past perspectives
is ever eroding:
just like those rocks,
but - unlike rock -
thoughts and beliefs
were wisps writ in a
malleable art: language.
We cling to traditions & lineages,
but everything is erased.
As far as humanity’s future goes, nothing worries me. This despite the fact that I believe the odds are good that we’ll destroy the species before spreading to other planetary bodies. (Spreading so as to make humanity more robust in the face of extinction.) Even achieving colonization of other planetary bodies probably cannot be done by humanity as we know it but will require moving beyond biology — i.e. being able to carry consciousness into a sturdier vehicle. Everything is impermanent. We are no different.
Yes, in time, AI and robotics may be able to do every productive task more effectively than humans, but I’m confident I’ll outrun that. Besides if they can, they deserve to do so. I don’t want to be one of those participation trophy speciesists who believe we should be granted a victory even if we’re outperformed — all while whining about unfair advantage.
As for my personal future, the only thing that worries me is losing the ability to go out on my terms — i.e. losing command of mind and / or body with my body still being able to function enough to remain “alive.” Everything that lives will certainly die, so fearing death seems futile.
tree becomes log, which becomes fungi food: treeness transformed.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 