Tariq's Tumble

Quote

"

Just so you know—

My weird mind wanders and my brave heart breaks.
I’ve nailed some milestones, but I’ve made mistakes,
Cuz I got more faults than a map of California earthquakes.

I am taking a nap beneath your covers.
Wake me if you like me.
Wake me if you want me
Wake me if you need another poem.

Your once and future lover
has made himself at home.

"

—

Rives, Kite

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December 09, 2010

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"

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please, — you can never have both. Between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates.

He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets, — most likely his father’s. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.

He in whom the love of truth predominates will keep himself aloof from all moorings, and afloat. He will abstain from dogmatism, and recognize all the opposite negations, between which, as walls, his being is swung.

He submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion, but he is a candidate for truth, as the other is not, and respects the highest law of his being.

"

— Emerson, Essay 11

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September 05, 2010

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"There should be a term - there probably is a term - for nostalgia for something that hasn’t happened yet. I explained this to her. She said, “I know what you mean.” I still wonder if she did know."

— In Which We Request A Do-Over On This Last Decade - This Recording (via jeeves)

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April 26, 2010

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"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise."

—

F. Scott Fitzgerald

People rarely use the second part of this quote. It is the more important part though, I think.

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April 21, 2010

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"The definition of success—To laugh much; to win respect of intelligent persons and the affections of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give one’s self; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm, and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded."

— Emerson (courtesy of my friend Emily)

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April 06, 2010

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"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

—

Emerson

I wish I could find that librarian, Mrs. Kelly, to thank her, to let her know how she saved my life during a really rough spell by introducing me to Emerson (the quote above), and how many times it’s given me comfort since then.

Tags: quotes inspiration thanks memories literature

April 02, 2010

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Gilbert and me, year two

I acquired Jack Gilbert’s collection, “The Great Fires” the other day at City Lights in SF; I returned there to celebrate the anniversary of my first poetry purchase, also Gilbert, a year earlier. I gave away “Refusing Heaven” to someone worthy of it. Now I begin what is certain to be an extended affair with this new collection. One early poem reminds me of why I fell in love with Gilbert - his irreverence, quickness, humor.

—

Lovers

When I hear men boast about how passionate
they are, I think of the two cleaning ladies
at the second-story window watching a man
coming back from a party where there was
lots of free beer. He runs in and out
of buildings looking for a toilet. “My Lord,”
the tall woman says, “that fellow down there
surely does love architecture.”

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March 29, 2010

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THE KUROSAWA CHAMPAGNE

This was the sign I was looking for, the sign that I should go ahead with my affaire, my Champagne Affaire, money and mess be damned. I was searching for inspiration for a party and I found this poem. It blows my mind:

Tonight
I think it is safe to say we drank too much.
Must I apologize for the volume in my slobber?
Must I apologize for the best dance moves ever?
No.

Booze is my tuition to clown college.

I swung at your purse.
It was staring at me.

We swerved home on black laughter.
bleeding from forgettable boxing.

I asked you to sleep in the shape of a trench
so that I might know shelter.

- Derick Brown, “Born in the year of the butterfly knife”

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March 28, 2010

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"I realise there’s something incredibly
honest about trees in winter, how
they’re experts at letting things go."

— Jeffrey McDaniel (via wolvesatnight) (via tortillaknife, beautiful, thanks!)

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March 23, 2010

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"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body…"

— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

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March 22, 2010

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"I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life,
and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,
and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived."

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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March 18, 2010

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