You revel in this minute
To see all that it entails
And to learn, to grow, to know
Your level’s in the details.
Antithetical
At war with your want for more
Your calm will best found
By pursuing nothing else
Than the scantest, barest ground.
By seeking out your minimum
You maximum your freedom.
By focusing on acting,
You overcome your lacking.
And by standing antithetical
To the theoretical
They’ll want you beyond their border
Because you think outside their order.
Distraction by Option
Filling that easel
Ain’t so easy
When you’ve got options
You keep givin’ yourself.
Growing Gains
I abandoned
Growing pains
After I felt
Growing gains.
Pacing Fast
He then faced his past,
Fast-paced and honestly,
And took his life back,
Once he wanted to earnestly.
Appearances are Appearances
Appearances
Aren’t deceiving.
Expectations
Are misleading.
Onus
“New year, new you?”
Same year, same you.
Take responsibility
For reformability.
“Vivere est militare.” – Seneca, Epist. 96,5.
Back Against the Hopes
You’ve pushed my back against the hopes
To join among the thralls.
You can’t back me in a corner;
I don’t believe in walls.
In Social Media Res
In social media res
More is often less,
The likes of which don’t even
Scratch a twitch at best.
The hollow hierarchy
Is best from outside.
In mediocrity res
Don’t follow the rest.
“Here’s a way to think about what the masses regard as being ‘good’ things. If you would first start by setting your mind upon things that are unquestionably good–wisdom, self-control, justice, courage–with this preconception you’ll no longer be able to listen to the popular refrain that there are too many good things to experience in a lifetime.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.12
Zero-Some (Climb the Latter)
You watch and you ask
“Why them, not me?”
Rather than ask them,
“What is the key?”
With the former mind,
You’re stuck standing still,
And with the latter eye,
You climb every hill.
So seek out the best,
Think as you ought.
It’s a zero-some game,
No effort’s for naught.
Author’s note: this poem was inspired by the following from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, 6.19: “If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible–for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.”
Zero Some 