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.)