{"id":19294,"date":"2017-05-12T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=19294"},"modified":"2017-05-12T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T17:54:00","slug":"doing-what-you-cant-not-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/doing-what-you-cant-not-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing What You Can’t Not Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image:<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “12$,” by Catherine Roy. (Found it on Flickr<\/a>; used here under a Creative Commons license — thank you!) The photographer seems to like taking photos which show objects (and people) of little or no consequence; although she hasn’t organized them into an official “album” as such, she has tagged (as of now) fifty-four photos with the phrase, “feeding my compulsion.”<\/a> Many of these photos (although not this one, obviously) simply show toilets.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

2. Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n

Cold or warm.<\/p>\n

Tired or well-rested.<\/p>\n

Despised or honored.<\/p>\n

Dying… or busy with other assignments. Because dying, too, is one of our assignments in life. There as well: “To do what needs doing.”<\/p>\n

3. Look inward. Don’t let the true nature or value of anything elude you.<\/p>\n

7. …Only there, delight and stillness<\/p>\n

11. When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep going back to it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Marcus Aurelius [source<\/em><\/a> (various pages)]\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

What Gorgeous Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do not know what gorgeous thing
\nthe bluebird keeps saying,
\nhis voice easing out of his throat,
\nbeak, body into the pink air
\nof the early morning. I like it
\nwhatever it is. Sometimes
\nit seems the only thing in the world
\nthat is without dark thoughts.
\nSometimes it seems the only thing
\nin the world that is without
\nquestions that can’t and probably
\nnever will be answered, the
\nonly thing that is entirely content
\nwith the pink, then clear white
\nmorning and, gratefully, says so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mary Oliver [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

On Meditating, Sort Of<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meditation, so I’ve heard, is best accomplished
\nif you entertain a certain strict posture.
\nFrankly, I prefer just to lounge under a tree.
\nSo why should I think I could ever be successful?<\/p>\n

Some days I fall asleep, or land in that
\neven better place—half-asleep—where the world,
\nspring, summer, autumn, winter—
\nflies through my mind in its
\nhardy ascent and its uncompromising descent.<\/p>\n

So I just lie like that, while distance and time
\nreveal their true attitudes: they never
\nheard of me, and never will, or ever need to.<\/p>\n

Of course I wake up finally
\nthinking, how wonderful to be who I am,
\nmade out of earth and water,
\nmy own thoughts, my own fingerprints—
\nall that glorious, temporary stuff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mary Oliver [ibid.<\/em>])<\/p>\n

<\/a>…and:<\/p>\n

Villanelle<\/strong> [*<\/a>]\n

Bouncing along like a punch-drunk bell,
\nits Proven\u00e7al shoes too tight for English feet,
\nthe villanelle is a form from hell.<\/p>\n

Balletic as a tapir, strong as a gazelle,
\nstrict rhyme and formal meter keep a beat
\nas tiresome as a punch-drunk bell—<\/p>\n

hop talking hip hop at the IHOP—no substitutions<\/em>
\non menu items, no fries with the chimichanga,<\/em>
\nno extra syrup<\/em>—what the hell<\/p>\n

was that? Where did my rhyme go—uh, compel—
\nalmost missed it again, damn, can you feel the heat
\ncoming off this sucker? Red hot! Ding!<\/em> (Sound of a bell.)<\/p>\n

Hey, do I look like a bellhop to you, like an el-
\nevator operator, like a trained monkey or a parakeet
\nsinging in my cage? Get the hell<\/p>\n

out of the Poetry Hotel!
\ndefeat <\/span>mesquite <\/span>tis <\/span>mete <\/span>repeat
\nBouncing along like a punch-drunk bell,
\nthe villanelle is a form from—Write<\/em> it!—hell.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Campbell McGrath [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/a>_______________________<\/p>\n

* The villanelle<\/em> is a poetic form of an almost insanely confining nature. Wikipedia sums it up this way:<\/p>\n

The villanelle consists of five stanzas of three lines (tercets) followed by a single stanza of four lines (a quatrain) for a total of nineteen lines. It is structured by two repeating rhymes and two refrains: the first line of the first stanza serves as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas, and the third line of the first stanza serves as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Here and elsewhere, the stock response to a request for an example is Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.”) The summary doesn’t even begin to do it justice. For more information, see the rest of the Wikipedia entry<\/a>; the Academy of American Poets page about it<\/a>; and\/or the (very limited) definition<\/a> provided by the Poetry Foundation. WikiHow also includes a useful guide to writing<\/em> a villanelle<\/a>, for those of you disposed to obsessive\/compulsive masochism.<\/p>\n

I like about Campbell McGrath’s version, above, that the anguish of constructing one is laid bare in the poem itself.<\/p>\n

[back<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “12$,” by Catherine Roy. (Found it on Flickr; used here under a Creative Commons license — thank you!) The photographer seems to like taking photos which show objects (and people) of little or no consequence; although she hasn’t organized them into an official “album” as such, she has tagged (as of now) fifty-four photos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Marcus Aurelius, et al., on 'Doing What You Can't Not Do'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,50,251,372,4159],"tags":[595,4528,4529,4530,4531,4532],"class_list":{"0":"post-19294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-art","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-language-writing_cat","12":"category-poetry-writing_cat","13":"category-style-and-craft","14":"category-essays","15":"tag-mary-oliver","16":"tag-marcus-aurelius","17":"tag-campbell-mcgrath","18":"tag-villanelle","19":"tag-compulsion","20":"tag-everyday-life","21":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/12_catherineroy_thumb.jpg?fit=480%2C356&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-51c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19294"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19307,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19294\/revisions\/19307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}