By: Henry MillerIf men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms. —Henry MillerEach one individually must revolt against a way of life which is not his own. The revolt, to be effective, must be continuous and relentless. It is not enough to overthrow gove
By: Khalil GibranText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDo not live half a life and do not die a half death If you choose silence, then be silent When you speak, do so until you are finished If you accept, then express it bluntly Do not mask it If you refuse then be
Photo: David Ingraham“Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it.” — SchopenhauerWhen you find human society disagreeable and feel yourself justified
By: Ernest BeckerArt: Zaam ArifThe irony of man’s condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive.— Ernest BeckerWhat does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea i
By: Harold NorseSubscribe nowText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAll my life I've been waiting for something unusual to happen. I may yet come into a windfall, National Endowment of the Hearts. All my life I've been expecting a grand finale, an awakening, love eru
By: Wisława SzymborskaThe great Polish poet Wisława Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. The following is the Nobel lecture she delivered on December 7, 1996. I hope you enjoy it.Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and will
By: Marie-Louise von Franz“If we can stay with the tension of opposites long enough —sustain it, be true to it—we can sometimes become vessels within which the divine opposites come together and give birth to a new reality.” — Marie-Louise von FranzMarie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998) was a Swiss psyc
Photo: Erik Rittenberry"One of the virtues of good poetry is the fact that it irritates the mediocre."--Theodore RoethkeNovalis once said that Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. Plato, too, understood that Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. Even the strict rationalist Sigmond Fr
"By the age of 70, he who doesn’t read will have lived only one life. He who reads will have lived 5000 years. Reading is immortality backwards."— Umberto EcoSubscribe nowFor me, reading and writing are deeply intertwined and are both driven by the same longing: to reach into the depths of my own li
By: Erik RittenberryPortrait of the poet Holger Drachmann by Peder Severin KrøyerThe best writers have said very little, and the worst, far too much.— BukowskiContemporary society is overrun with self-proclaimed “poets” who relish in the title yet produce very little poetic fire. Much of what parade
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or even can enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind. — RoethkeSubscribe nowThe great Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) was an influential American poet known for his introspective, nature-inspired poetry. He’s one of my go-to poets when life becomes a heavy, u
By: Tom WaitsSubscribe nowHey Charlie, I'm pregnantLiving on 9th StreetRight above a dirty bookstoreOff Euclid AvenueI stopped taking dopeAnd I quit drinking whiskeyAnd my old man plays the tromboneAnd works out at the trackHe says that he loves meEven though its not his babyHe says that he'll raise
By: Albert HuffsticklerText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy father carried a poem with him all through his internment in Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines, carried it with him for four years, showed it to me one day folded and refolded, print blurred, co
By: Judson Stacy VereenJudson Vereen in Los Angeles. Photo by Sharkey Smalls.Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedCan I put my praise on hold? (For a moment or two or three) and laugh out loud at God or pretend it was me? May I take your hand for a moment, And sha
By: Julia VinogradPoetry is a bridge between wounds. — Julia VinogradText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedGood and evil are only high and low on one string of god’s violin. There are other strings being played stretching from our guts to the end of the world. Tel
“D.H. Lawrence will outlive the British Empire. He will outlive her as Caesar and Cicero have outlived Rome. An empire lives only as long as it has living geniuses to give it their flame…” — Henry MillerAs everyone knows, the body of Lawrence’s work forms a huge self-portrait. He looked into the mir
“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” — Ralph Waldo EmersonSubscribe nowTo go into solitude, a man needs to retire as
By: Wisława SzymborskaSubscribe nowText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedWhy does this written doe bound through these written woods? For a drink of written water from a spring whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle? Why does she lift her head; does she hear somet
The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.—Joseph CampbellSubscribe nowMyths to Live By is one of my favorite works by the great Joseph Campbell. In this thought-provoking book, one of the themes Campbell examines is the contrasts between Western and Eastern r
By: Gregory CorsoText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThere’s a truth limits man A truth prevents his going any farther The world is changing The world knows it’s changing Heavy is the sorrow of the day The old have the look of doom The young mistake their fate
