Credo, Desiderata

for danielle

I aim to be credible in the moment, sufferable for a time,
desirable at a distance, and tolerable in bed.

Don't bother making things
famous. They don't need it.

And don't bother people with
fame. It destroys them.

The substrate of consciousness is life.
Your soul depends on it.

The contortions of belief
that protect our desires,

the contortions of desire,
that protect our beliefs,

are rectified in

the clarity of philosophy,
the intensity of poetry.

There are small shifts within the body,
the first emotions, to which our lives
adjust, in obedience and resistance.

They have been there from the start.
They do not master us, but are a limit
on our sovereignty, our reach.

The first concepts are beyond us.
From things within its grasp, the body
learns. In understanding and confusion,

our knowledge grows, without end,
without purpose or finality.
We are curious, friend. Curious indeed.