Contradicta










Everything is pushing my buttons today- except the one that says "on."




******************


Peace and quiet- there goes the diet.

Contradicta









How many nascent ideas, skewered like game, lay dead at your feet?




*******************



Time wasted is time tasted.

Contradicta








As the truth tellers grow more numerous, passionate and articulate, the liars become more organized, cunning and cruel.




******************************


Open your mind quickly and your mouth slowly.

Contradicta









As perplexity frequently foreshadows the new, adoration as often augurs the old.



**************************


Opinions and affections mixed together, like vinegar and oil, may spice something bland, but left to themselves they quickly separate.

Contradicta









It's molting season: shed the old regrets and fly.




*****************************



Don't be too nicey to those who are icy.

Contradicta






Wit is used more often to silence than to say.




******************




Ipod therefore I am.




**********************************

A Writer's Lament: the Bipolar side of Blake

Came across this surprisingly personal poem by Blake, written in a letter to Thomas Butts, August 16, 1803.


"O why was I born with a different face?
Why was I not born like the rest of my race?
When I look each one starts! When I speak I offend;
Then I'm silent & passive & lose every Friend.

Then my verse I dishonor. My pictures despise,
My person degrade & my temper chastise;
And the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame;
All my Talents I bury, and dead is my Fame.

I am either too low or too highly priz'd;
When Elate I am Envied, when Meek I'm despis'd."


[Penguin Classics Blake
edited by Alicia Ostriker]