Ithaca

When you set out for Ithaka

ask that your way be long,

full of adventure, full of instruction...

Have Ithaka always in your mind.

Your arrival there is what you are destined for.

But don't in the least hurry the journey.

Better it last for years,

so that when you reach the island you are old,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.

Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.

So wise you have become, of such experience,

that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean. 

Constantine P. Cavafy

the unseen

And they tell me that

This life is good

They tell me to live it gently

With fire, and always with hope.

There is wonder here

And there is surprise

In everything the unseen moves.

The ocean is full of songs.

The sky is not an enemy.

Destiny is our friend.

 -- Ben Okri

every day... is judgement day

I shall tell you a great secret my friend. 

Do not wait for the last judgement. 

It takes place every day.

- Albert Camus

November ender notes

—I write

and write, and transcend
nothing, escape
nothing, nothing
is truly born from me,

yet magically it’s better

than nothing—I know

you must be quite

changed by now, but you,

are just the same, too,
like those stars that keep
shining for a long time after
they go out—but it’s just a light

they touch us with this

evening amid the fine

rain like mist, among the pines.

—Denis Johnson
“From a Berkeley Notebook” in
The Incognito Lounge: And Other Poems
(Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1994)

Ode To The Rebels

I Go my way complacently,
  As self-respecting persons should.
You are to me the rebel thought,
  You are the wayward rebel mood.

What shall we share who are separate?        5
  We part—as alien persons should.
But oh, I have need of the rebel thought,
  And a wicked urge to the rebel mood!



Florence Kiper Frank, You