Illuminated by Darkness — It is Friday, four o’clock. Four o’clock. A time that’s never quite right, for anything to take flight, always too late or too early, in-between, such a blurry peculiar hour in the afternoon, either too late or too soon. Today it feels unbearable. In darkness visible, I sit and wait for…

What Can’t Be Known — I. Through the creaking branches, uncountable glowing stars, a slow gyre, filling vast reaches. Loosened by the cold, dry night, they slip toward the skyline. Like petals falling, ever the silent stars. I turn with them, feel their movement deep inside me. I can breathe again. The inert heaviness of life, the…

The Great Collapse of the 21st Century — The period leading up to and following the near-extinction of global civilization in the mid-twenty-first century is a prime example of what modern sociohistory has come to call the Epimethean Syndrome, a social malady that refers to the widespread, universal false application of human mental function, as opposed to its…

On the [Quantum] Nature of Things — If we learn anything by examining antiquity, it’s that, no doubt, many works of inestimable value are gone forever. But, on the other hand, we have salvaged some almost-lost treasures, some real beauties, but if only by the skin of our teeth! De Rerum Natura, frequently translated as On the…

After Meng Haoran — I slept late this Spring morning. Dawn had already spread her rosy fingers. As I rubbed sleep from my eyes, Chirrups, trills and warbles, birdsongs filled the air. Dreamlike, sounds had filled my sleep, Wind in the willows, soft rain tapping my roof. Gentle Spring made herself known. …

After Li Bai — 獨坐敬亭山 李白 dú zuò jìng tíng shān lǐ bái 眾鳥高飛盡 zhòng niǎo gāo fēi jìn 孤雲獨去閑 gū yún dú qù xián 相看兩不厭 xiāng kàn liǎng bú yàn 唯有敬亭山 wéi yǒu jìng tíng shān Sharp black points against blue, high and far away, a wing of geese flies southward. Quiet, in…

Because She Has To — We hit it off right away. Her behind the register. Me with my groceries. Maybe it was because when we looked, we each saw ourselves. “Did you find everything you were looking for?” she asked. Her name badge read, ‘Kate.’ As she rang up my things, we talked about food. “What do…

After Wang Wei — Like lovers at play, my boat chased the water into the beloved hills of my homeland. Pale pink petals, peach blossoms blushed on both banks at the old river crossing, well known to me. I lost track of how far I had come away, water lapping, adrift among the soft blooms. My…

Plato, Hegel, and the Roots of Western Authoritarianism — Brutal dictators. Relentless oppression. A manipulated, subdued, fearful populace. From Belarus to China to North Korea to Venezuela and dozens of other countries, increasingly, this is the face of the twenty-first century. …