By: Charles BukowskiPublished in The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992), Bukowski’s final major poetry collection issued during his lifetime, “Dinosauria, We”, one of my favorite poems of his, depicts a decaying society, a society where the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree, prisons overf
By: Erik RittenberryPhoto: Erik RittenberryDo not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.--Matsuo BashoText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedI awake to the ethereal wind singing in the trees. The morning sky, the color of ashe overhead as
Art: Justin EscourtThere is twilight in our souls, neither light nor dark. The light must draw itself together in purity, the dark must stand on the other hand; they must be two complete in opposition, neither one partaking of the other, but each single in its own stead.— D.H. LawrenceSappho leaped
By: Chuang Tzu“The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”—Chuang TzuText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedWhat is meant by a “true man”? The true men of old were not afraid When they
The final days of Benjamin Fondane“I advanced, fearing that I’d be forgotten, crying out from fear, hunger, and pain…include me here…I too am a god. Take pity, at least!”—Benjamin FondanePoet, essayist, philosopher, and filmmaker Benjamin Fondane is one of those rare, volcanic figures of 20th-centur
By: William JamesThe art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.—William JamesAmong us English-speaking peoples especially do the praises of poverty need once more to be boldly sung. We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify
By: Cesare PaveseText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThe body can never start over. Touching its eyelids you'll know that a lump of clay's more alive, since earth, even at dawn, merely turns inward in silence. But a corpse is what's left after waking too soon.
By: David LernerPhoto: Hengki Lee Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedthe trick is to live with utter despair without utterly despairing to hate with your heart and yet not quite believe itText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedo
By: Mary Oliver“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”― Mary OliverIf Romeo and Juliet had made appointments to meet, in the moonlight-swept orchard, in
By: Erik RittenberryPhoto: Erik Rittenberry“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”— Alan WattsWell, folks, I had a birthday this week. I t
By: Henry BestonArt: Winslow Homer“It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live.”― Henry BestonOur fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Primitive folk, gathered at a cave
By: Erik Rittenberry“You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that's always easiest.” ― John BerrymanThe great American poet, John Berry
By: Francois Jacob“What man seeks, to the point of anguish, in his gods, in his art, in his science, is meaning. He cannot bear the void. He pours meaning on events like salt on his food.”― Francois JacobMy obsession: a life that shrivels up, slowly rots, goes soft as a pulp. This worry about declin
By: Erik Rittenberry“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.”― Jack LondonThere’s a passage from one of my literary heroes, Jack London, that lives rent-free in my head. It goes:“Have you lived? What have you got to show for it? St
By: Henry Beston“Nature is part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery, man ceases to be man. —Henry BestonText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThe world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fi
“Artists are here to disturb the peace.” — James Baldwin“Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent—which attitude certainly has a great deal to support it. On the other hand, it is only because the world
By: Mary OliverDairy Farm At Christmas by Bob FairText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedSays a country legend told every year: Go to the barn on Christmas Eve and see what the creatures do as that long night tips over. Down on their knees they will go, the fire of a
Henry David Thoreau is a painting by John LautermilchAs you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. —Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817– May 6, 1862) is one of America’s fines
The great affair is to move."Wandering," by Pawel Kosior“We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. Even while the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness
By: Erik Rittenberry“The point is to wake up, not to earn a Ph.D. in waking up.”― Jed McKennaWho the hell is Jed McKenna? No one really knows. He’s an author who writes under a pseudonym. There is still a lively debate about his true identity. Speculation aside, no one truly knows. McKenna is known
