As you are distressed
by my reasons,
I am confused
by your passions.

_____
Notes:

Distress is a decomposition of passion. Confusion is a decomposition of reason.

Reason finds its composure by distinguishing things clearly from each other. Passion finds its composure in our intense identification with each other as people.

To distress is to "draw apart" to the point of suffering. To confuse is to "pour together" insufferably.

Composure, then, is a very precise kind of suffering. It is where things are kept apart despite our passions, and where people are kept together despite our reasons. It finds a balance of clarity and intensity.

Disobeying Hitler is not a way of obeying your muse.

Misunderstanding Heidegger is not a way of understanding your existence.

Use philosophy
to locate your concepts
and hone your intuitions.

Use poetry
to temper your emotions
and gauge your institutions.

Use language
to civilize
your intuitions,
to humanize
your institutions.

Theme and Craft

from Greek thema "a proposition,
subject, deposit," literally "something set down,"

German Kraft "strength, skill" ...
Sense expanded in Old English to include "skill, dexterity; art, science, talent"
... also "something built or made."

The proximity of a thought.
The duration of a feeling.

Conceptual space,
emotional
time.

Does the cosmos tend towards the soul?
Does the planet tend towards the body?

Or did our bodies just do the best they could here?
Did our souls make do with what they found?

I was wrong about Composure.
This is not my body.

I become the passion I am.
It is the reason to change.

"For a long time I used to get up early." (John Ashbery)

The Lightest Thing

I find it remarkable
that,

centuries before science
discovered

the photon, the language
already

knew that light is
not heavy.

Wisdom is to know you are no one. Love is to acknowledge there are others.

Philosophy is the pursuit of conceptual accuracy.
Poetry is the pursuit of emotional accuracy.