Science is to education
as politics, to emancipation.

Suddenly everyone is a spectacle.

Genius recognizes itself.
Nothing else does.

It is what it is.
Become who you will.

The philosopher helps us
to decide
what to believe,

the poet,
to discover
who to desire.

It is dishonest
to make someone believe
something you think
is not true.

It is indecent
to make someone desire
something you feel
is not right.

And to prevent someone
from believing,
from desiring,
what you think is true,
what you feel good about?

This, too, is dishonest.
Indecent. Be kinder.

Art is too important to be left to the virtuous.

If you cannot understand it
don't believe it.
Don't desire it.
if you will not obey it.

Begin with
understanding
and obedience.

Proceed to your beliefs,
with honesty;
with decency,
proceed to your desires.

Balance your discoveries
and your decisions;
maintain your clarity and
your intensity.

Know things
according to their measure.
"Master thyself
then others shall ye bear."

Solitude* is to knowledge
as friendship, to power.

_______
*Not, as I had previously suggested, loneliness.

Distance is to space
as patience, to time.

Mind-forged manacles
in a heart-shaped box.

"The effects we call 'poetic' occur when speech is made under two conditions: urgency and shortness of time. When the former is 'inspiration' and the latter is 'form', the result is the cultural convention known as 'the poem'." (Don Paterson, The Poem, p. 12)

A pangrammatical supplement: What we call 'philosophical' issues arise, as William James pointed out, "in the unlimited leisure of the wilderness," where there is no urgency and a nutshell bounds a kingdom of infinite space. Under these conditions, when talk turns to 'existence' and the mood is 'informal', the result is the altogether natural entertainment known as 'a philosophy'.

A change of
direction
is to power

as a firm
position
is to knowledge.

____

(As caprice is
to tenure.)