My students of avant-garde poetry wanted to workshop their poems! Put this line earlier, and that one later, and make the opening more clear! It’s like rethinking a cloud, moving one channel of vapor to another side, the better to take still photos. We could alter those, too, until what we had seen became what we imagined, tamed. I wish yesterday’s meditation had started at the end. Over the course of 500 or so words, Ironic Historical Dwell would have been transformed to Buddhist Dwell without Hatred, the word defined to suit our desire for closure (meaning a happy ending). There’s no central character in a meditation, but we want it (whatever it is) to make progress. More learning can lead to less sense, like a critic argues for a pedophile because that’s the direction the language takes him. Is rhetoric a form of knowledge, or only its GPS? We follow, because who would not a sentence such as that one, clever and concise and hitting its target audience full on. Tenure smiles from around that thought's tight corner. If I began with hatred, could I as easily end with love? Perhaps, but I didn’t.
Wherefore, upon this road, to enter upon the road is to leave the road. St. John of the Cross
When you reach the fork in the road, take it. Yogi Berra
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