Outsiderness

out·sid·er n. 1. a. One who is excluded from a party, association, or set. b. One who is isolated or detached from the activities or concerns of his or her own community. 2. A contestant given little chance of winning; a long shot. out·sider·ness n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,

Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

"You can be a rank insider
as well as a rank outsider." 
(Robert Frost)

*Photo by Bloddrope, "Dancing the Night Away"

Outside History




These are outsiders, always. These stars—
these iron inklings of an Irish January,
whose light happened
thousands of years before
our pain did; they are, they have always been
outside history.
They keep their distance. Under them remains
a place where you found
you were human, and
a landscape in which you know you are mortal.
And a time to choose between them.
I have chosen:
out of myth in history I move to be
part of that ordeal
who darkness is
only now reaching me from those fields,
those rivers, those roads clotted as
firmaments with the dead.
How slowly they die
as we kneel beside them, whisper in their ear.
And we are too late. We are always too late.

 
Eavan Boland

Being consumed with desire

desire
<>   — n 3. a wish or longing; craving 4. an expressed wish; request 5. sexual appetite; lust 6. a person or thing that is desired Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition 2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
	"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." (Robert Frost)

*Author's Photo

 

Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long

Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,
Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?
Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem
In gentle numbers time so idly spent;
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem,
And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
Rise, resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey
If time have any wrinkle graven there;
If any, be a satire to decay,
And make time's spoils despisèd everywhere.
Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life;
So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife.

William Shakespeare

Pain

pain (pn)
n.
1. An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder.
2. Suffering or distress.
3. pains The pangs of childbirth.
4. pains Great care or effort: take pains with one's work.
5. Informal A source of annoyance; a nuisance.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

"The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain."
(Aristotle)

*Photo by unknown author

Dark Trinity

Said I to Pain: "You would not dare
Do ill to me."
Said Pain: "Poor fool! Why should I care
Whom you may be?
To clown and king alike I bring
My meed of bane;
Why should you shirk my chastening?"
Said Pain.

Said I to Grief: "No tears have I,
Go on your way."
Said Grief: "Why should I pass you by,
While others pay?
All men must know the way of woe,
From saint to thief,
And tears were meant to overflow,"
Said Grief.

Said I to Death: "From ail and fret
Grant me relief."
Said Death: "I know you are beset
By Pain and Grief.
But my good will you must await
Since human breath
To suffering is consecrate,"
Said Death.

Said I to God: "Pale Sister Grief,
Bleak Brother Pain,
Bedevil me beyond belief,
And Death's unfain . . ."
Said God: "Curse not that blessed Three,
Poor human clod!
Have faith! Believe the One with Me,"
Said God.



Robert Service