assorted apothegms

eventually
all sources of life are external,
all means of living internal.

pride is most pernicious
in those who are no longer trying
to live up to their potential.

(if you know what I'm talking about, consider yourself somewhat at risk).

one for the generalists:

the depth of a soul
is measured in the breadth of its interests
the breadth of a soul
in the depth of its insight

and, not really an apothegm...

in his later years, my grandfather became a very careful sort of scientist:
he was always repeating his observations.

Math and myth

spherical trigonometry
can tell you where you are
though it is by ancient tales
we contain the stars

celestial. domestic. tangential.

the trigger was
the tease of sky
that slip of understood
it is the moving of the billows against
unmoved blue

from the case of where you stood
slipped a clue
actually a few, like days between
showers, showers of
all kinds--morning, baby,
rain--each record is a footstep
i mean, this beat of time, the clop of it
feathered in gumshoe
you can feel the cushion
as it billows back from
the immobile you
the sky of you
the sound of that is the white of your bone.

the denouement, let us unwind
three pop cans, your purse with its keys
bits of paper in various dimensions
the angles of life are domestic
trigonometric
as the tangent waves like wind upon
our circle set, the clue is that we move
in given lengths along our way
with slide the rule and axial the play.