I noticed today the loosely wrinkled skin On legs and arms, no defect, no disease But simply signs of time, the body's decrease Of power and of repair as these begin The ultimate indications of old age. ~ A.D. Hope ("Memento Mori" via Australian Poetry Library) I return again to memento mori, not to wax morose or moribund but to remind myself to laugh and dance and take nervous risks and strain ...
Change
Rucksack
It’s time for a moratorium On worries and procrastination, On moorings and parking meters And slipped opportunities. It’s time for a rucksack manifesto. A few lines from one of my current favorites. It's still a rough, rough draft. I've been dancing with it for longer than almost anything else in this project. I've given up repeatedly, abandoned it, tried to forget about it. But it keeps ...
Rules
"Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see ...
Italic
Headlong toward My emphatic point Pressed earnestly in- To and through type. Pedal to the mettle. Stop. Go. No typo. Race over. Stand up. Straight. Still. Again. (Source: "Italic", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) Movement, motion, emphasis. Willful progress. Eagerness. The lines above come from a compact riff called "Italic". Explaining more would be saying too much about a poem that ...
Twitch
ADHD today, but a twitch in 1975. And a twitch again today, but just a small twitch like a miniature heart beating in plain view to remind me I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m alive. (Source: "Twitch", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) Before ADHD was so tidily packaged up, some of us were just jittery, distracted kids. Hyper. But totally alive! This excerpt pops up midstream a poem about a subtle, ...
Change
The world I want to live in is a world powered by change. It is a world driven by design thinking, disruption, and... a world of greater simplicity and greater complexity than ever before... We must savor the little moments; allow them to change us. Love our experiments... capture the accidents... [and] eschew the known quantity... let’s not forget our capacity for wonder, gratitude, and ...