Category Archives: poetry

A Mini-Course in Critical Thinking For Writers. Concept 1.16: Thinking Critically About Beauty, Art, And Literature

Posted on October 15, 2018 by

I’ve decided to attempt the first draft of a college-level textbook, writing it directly into my blog, bit by bit. Feedback and recommendations in the thread comments are welcome, either encouraging or critical. The first chapter is a mini-course in … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, critical thinking, david hume, education, edward feser, meditation, philosophy, poetry, reason, rhetoric, writing | Leave a comment

A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.3: Rhetoric Is Sexy

Posted on October 8, 2018 by

I’ve decided to attempt the first draft of a college-level textbook, writing it directly into my blog, bit by bit. Feedback and recommendations in the thread comments are welcome, either encouraging or critical. The first chapter is a mini-course in … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, critical thinking, education, origins, philosophy, poetry, reason, rhetoric, writing | Leave a comment

A Mini-Course in Critical Thinking For Writers. Concept 1.9: Moving From Innocence To Experience

Posted on October 6, 2018 by

I thought I would attempt the first draft of a college-level textbook, writing it directly into my blog, bit by bit. Feedback and recommendations in the thread comments are welcome, either encouraging or critical. The first chapter would be a … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, atomism, beauty, david hume, education, edward feser, Lucretius, philosophy, poetry, reason, rhetoric, science, writing | Leave a comment

A Mini-Course In Critical Thinking For Writers. Concept 1.4: Spanning The Bridge From Logical Possibility To Truth

Posted on October 5, 2018 by

I thought I would attempt the first draft of a college-level textbook, writing it directly into my blog, bit by bit. Feedback and recommendations in the thread comments are welcome, either encouraging or critical. The first chapter would be a … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, critical thinking, david hume, education, edward feser, Lucretius, philosophy, poetry, reason, rhetoric, science, Uncategorized, writing | 5 Comments

Pareidolia, Google Deep Dream, Wittgenstein’s Aspect Seeing, and Friedrich Nietzsche

Posted on September 29, 2018 by

The below YouTube video on Google Deep Dream strikes me as an important reflection, not just on artificial intelligence and art, but on the human condition in the sense that pareidolia (projecting images, moods, ideas onto things) is far more … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, david hume, edward feser, God, Lucretius, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Relativity (A Poem)

Posted on June 26, 2018 by

RELATIVITY This is whatever can be measured between us. For instance, two birds share one sign, tail feathers touching, heads back in song, a heart of gray sky framed between them. But look again, for each line clocks a difference. One … Continue reading →

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Self Calming: 86 Ways To Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System

Posted on April 4, 2018 by

Below is a concise self calming list I recently brainstormed for myself–and I thought it might be helpful for others as well. I keep a copy on a single piece of paper in my pocket and look at it periodically … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, Bernie Sanders, david hume, edward feser, God, Lucretius, meditation, philosophy, poetry, science, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Poet’s Fictions (A Poem)

Posted on September 29, 2017 by

THE POET’S FICTIONS   No hurry, no preference; Nothing simple, Nothing personal; one fire, Great Silence.   Bring your rebellion. Bring your solidarity. Imagine. Bent nail. Struggle. Birth. _____

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On Having No Head: The Headless Squid Bowl, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, And The Cosmos’s Undirected, Mutually Interdependent Arising

Posted on September 5, 2017 by

The headless squid bowl sometimes served in Japanese restaurants is odd and fascinating. It strikes me as a metaphor for the cosmos: it goes without a head. How strange. In a sense, even conscious beings like ourselves go without a … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, atomism, beauty, climate change, david hume, edward feser, Genesis, God, Lucretius, meditation, origins, poetry, science, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Spring (a poem)

Posted on May 8, 2017 by

SPRING   God gave me a rose. And God is love. The rose made me.   Sneeze. I have Asthma. The rose Landed.   Me in hospital. That can’t be right. If God is love.   And gave me a … Continue reading →

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“A Neutral Color Or Yellow?” A Poem On The Problem Of Fence Sitting In The Age Of Trump

Posted on March 5, 2017 by

A NEUTRAL COLOR OR YELLOW?   If the emperor Says he has clothes, And has no clothes, Is silence suspended Judgment or cowardice? _____ Per Wikipedia: “On 10 May 1933, in an act of ominous significance, the students burned upwards … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, Bernie Sanders, climate change, donald trump, feminism, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Politics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What Time Is It? (Another Poem for Daniela Vargas)

Posted on March 2, 2017 by

WHAT TIME IS IT?   There are times When silence Does not mean Neutrality, Nor fairness, Nor indecision, Nor open-mindedness, But consent And approval; Indifference And cowardice. Our time is one Of those times.  

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, donald trump, feminism, hillary clinton, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Politics, Ted Cruz, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Question (a poem for DREAMer Daniela Vargas, in the United States since age seven, arrested in retaliation for exercising her free speech, 2017)

Posted on March 2, 2017 by

QUESTION What does it mean If a tree falls In a forest On a person And no One makes a sound?

Posted in aesthetics, beauty, donald trump, feminism, hillary clinton, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Politics, Ted Cruz, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Donald Trump and Emily Dickinson: An Apt Quote and Poem for the Run-Up to Tuesday’s Election

Posted on November 5, 2016 by

This quote captures for me a lot of the pre-election feel of this weekend: “Asked earlier Friday aboard Air Force One en route to North Carolina what the president makes of a country that has not more clearly rejected Trump, … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, Bernie Sanders, donald trump, feminism, hillary clinton, poetry, Politics, Ted Cruz, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Double Helix of Your Nightmares

Posted on September 25, 2016 by

An interesting floor mosaic at the University of Notre Dame memorializing the evolutionary biologist who coined the familiar saying, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” The image of the double helix of DNA recalls the … Continue reading →

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A Stairway to Nowhere in NYC

Posted on September 14, 2016 by

Hmm. Moloch? A face mask without a self? Ever bigger guys pressing down on the littlest guy? There’s something Kafkaesque about this “stairway to nowhere.” An Escher painting catching real humans? It recalls a trilobite or exoskeleton–or perhaps an ant … Continue reading →

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David Hume On Beauty–And How To Get Good At Detecting It

Posted on May 17, 2016 by

Is taste in art and literature akin to taste in ice cream? In 1757, the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) published four essays under the title, Four Dissertations, one of which he called “Of the Standard of Taste.” In it, Hume attempts … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump’s Loaded Gun–and Emily Dickinson’s

Posted on May 9, 2016 by

I’d like to offer up Emily Dickinson’s poem #764—her “Loaded Gun” poem—as a trope for Donald Trump’s (thus far successful) hack of the Republican Party—and his threat to do the same to the American presidency. I’ll deal with the poem, stanza by … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, donald trump, feminism, God, poetry, Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment