kamiel79

Starlight

last night, ancient starlight fell onto your arm it was billions of years old and had traveled the entire time only to smash into your barren wrinkled skin. there was a team of people who rushed in to help you wonder, and to make sure you understand the grandure, the sheer magnificence of it all. ...

Reading: Sudden Movements by Bob Hicok

Bob Hicok (1960) is a poet from Michigan who writes accessible and meditative poetry. He currently teaches creative writing at Purdue University. My father's head has become a mystery to him. We finally have something in common. When he moves his head his eyes get big as roses filled with the commotion of spring. Not ...

My words that are idiot contracts written to the music of escape.

Partij van de Leuke Oplossingen

Festina lente! staat bij de PLO hoog in het vaandel. Voordat ik mezelf officieel kandidaat stel als lijsttrekker van Neerlands frisse nieuwe partij, de Partij van de Leuke Oplossingen, heb ik er eerst een nachtje over geslapen. Wanneer je in het Nederland van 2018 enig succes wilt boeken met een politieke partij, dan moet de ...

Review: Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz

Being Wrong is a well-written account of our understanding of error. The author points out how central error is for all aspects of cultural proress. It is not an academic treatise, but still gives the history of thinking about scientific and religious truth a fair treatment, by mentioning for example St. Augustine's fallor ergo sum, ...

Experiment

It is not because I have conclusive evidence of it, but because I enjoy teaching new things to my daughter Miru, that I believe we should introduce the most basic concepts of science to our children as early as possible. When Miru and I were wondering if the sea could freeze over, I suggested that ...

Reading: Carson McCullers by Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was a legendary American poet, and writer of novels and short stories. I read a summer poem presented to me on a poetry website: Carson McCullers she died of alcoholism wrapped in a blanket on a deck chair on an ocean steamer. all her books of terrified loneliness all her books about the ...

Meditation on Hope

We sit and pretend we are terminally ill. We breathe calmly. What is hope? What do we make of the bonmot that 'hope dies last' if we are lost in a desert without the prospect of water? And isn't the human condition hopeless 'in the end', if we presuppose a rough understanding of hope as ...

Reminder: Orwell’s Advice

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a ...