Being is constant creativity, Or so old Gilles Deleuze has made us think, But reading him my mind caves inwardly, My being draining outwards down the sink. These post-structuralists, they all like to speak And multiply their words like plural truths, But at day’s end, we all of us must eke A living out, forContinue reading “Sonnet for Gilles Deleuze”
Category Archives: Philosophy
The Crowd Is Unbelief
For up they looked and on they walked, straight to Horizons which the world, too blind to see, All mocked and doubted; yet the endless view Of cities yet to come, lives yet to be Still drove them on, amidst the scornful crowd. The leap of faith, the movement and the dance, The downwards stabContinue reading “The Crowd Is Unbelief”
It’s true:
God’s always watching in the Quad. Reality is bursting at the seams And all our earthly dreams may look quite odd To one who sees through our most concrete schemes. The fixed unchangingness of human things Is like a dream and fades like vapour as We rise too eagerly on knowing wings. Yet all ourContinue reading “It’s true:”
To trust requires a qualitative leap (Kierkegaard Sonnet #3)
To trust requires a qualitative leap And sin, I’m told, involves more of the same: The gap, whichever way you turn, is deep And, leaping, you can’t go back where you came. So, then, when our ontology is faint And all our guesses lead us back to here – This point of anxious thinking, mind’sContinue reading “To trust requires a qualitative leap (Kierkegaard Sonnet #3)”
“The Concept of Anxiety” Explained
As anyone who has read my Twitter feeds recently can probably tell, I have been on a bit of a Kierkegaard-reading binge – partly for my study and partly for my own interest. After a particularly challenging session of reading the first chapter of The Concept of Anxiety, I composed this sonnet. Enjoy! The ConceptContinue reading ““The Concept of Anxiety” Explained”
Søren, the pure of heart must will one thing
And we too must be pure in heart to see Our God, before whom we are all in need; And if we double-minded ones all cling To two things at the same time – everything The world declares in lying unity, And that which, in our hearts, we long to be (The loving one, theContinue reading “Søren, the pure of heart must will one thing”
The hinge that held the beeswax in the mind;
As demonstrated by my sonnet from earlier in the week about minds exploding, I am currently taking a subject in my Masters course that is much more philosophical than anything I have done since undergraduate study. Today’s poem has been inspired by my reading of Wittgenstein and Descartes. It is perhaps more philosophical than myContinue reading “The hinge that held the beeswax in the mind;”
The Consolations of Writing 