Of the rational soul, the Stoics believed it was ideal to master the push and pull of the world on heart and head; to practice the art of cool withdrawal from tempests we can't thwart or subdue. Marcus Aurelius, what did you really mean when you said we are to love only what happens? I have trouble thinking of destiny as a cart pulling a dog who's digging its hind legs hard into the mud— shouldn't it be the other way around? And who is driving the cart? Alicia Ostriker wrote They say God loves a shattered heart and also a soft one and a wild one that sparkles* The child is newly finding words for all the big feelings suddenly welling up inside him; and yet he also intuits— the moment before the turn from one to the other is past recovery. Foraging birds in the blueberry bush startle when he sobs, Make me happy. - from Alicia Ostriker's "Memo to Self: Ten Reasons for Love"
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
