A Compilation Book Poem

L ast year I was blessed to read through 50 books.  About one book a week.  I made extensive notes.  Of which I am grateful for.  At the end of the year, I scanned through & compiled some of my favorite into a poem.  A bit reaching, but refining nonetheless.  It was a bright and thankful experience.  Perhaps this will become an annual tradition, since it seems ground for such good toil.

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In Defense of the Paradox

Silver has the curious property

of sterilizing water,

but by and large,

we are unlikely to realize

that our evaluations

are as much a commentary

on what we bring to the meal

as they are on the meal itself,

this may be why silver coins

are found at the bottom of ancient wells.

When Homer calls the sky Bronze,

he means that it is dazzlingly bright,

only the man who knows

the forces that shape

the way he thinks

is capable of resisting

those forces,

the past is a foreign country,

they do things differently there.

Civilization has bred desires

which she forbids us to satisfy,

what conducts electricity

is not the water molecules,

but the chemicals dissolved in them,

the bravest species of animal

is the Carrier Pigeon.

When life is not too good,

we think a lot about

how it could be better.

but As long as expectations

keep pace with realizations,

people may live better,

but they won't feel better

about how they live.

When life is going well,

we tend not to think much about

how it could be worse, 
& chances are

that if lottery winners 
knew in advance

just how little 
winning the lottery

would improve 
their subjective well-being,

they wouldn't be buying 
lottery tickets.

There is only one best

way of teaching drawing,

and that is teaching the scholar

to draw the human figure.