seanpatrick.phd

seanpatrick.phd, 13 days ago to poetry

A moment on this Earth to live, to die,<br></br>as real and unrelenting as a dream;<br></br>phenomena and phantoms pass us by,<br></br>as empty of importance as they seem.<br></br><br></br>We are by choice beneath illusion’s sway,<br></br>our shadowed spirits subject to a whim –<br></br>each phantom a reflection, in its way,<br></br>upon a mirror desolate and dim.<br></br><br></br>One moment we are hidden in a crowd,<br></br>another we go lonely to the grave;<br></br>but ere we don the ceremonial shroud,<br></br>we glimpse the bright reflection that we crave:<br></br>that phantoms, hidden by the dream-world’s mist,<br></br>reveal a fellow dreamer’s lips when kissed.<br></br>

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/05/26/sonnet-for-a-phantom/

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seanpatrick.phd, 16 days ago to poetry

The mind's a needle that draws a thread:<br></br>the body, knotted in the head,<br></br>secured by axons to its guide.<br></br>They dart through fibers woven tight<br></br>and restless seek the other side<br></br>of veils they've fashioned on their travels.<br></br><br></br>As they cross paths, they bind and tangle,<br></br>and jockey for the perfect angle<br></br>to sew a stitch of their design<br></br>on a sheet of endless space and time;<br></br>but when the thread cuts free at last, <br></br>the needlepoint’s all that remains:<br></br>the fabric of the veil unravels.<br></br>

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/05/23/needlepoint/

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seanpatrick.phd, 18 days ago to poetry

The best of life is left unlived:<br></br>the mass of moments absent mind,<br></br>explosions over in an instant<br></br>that leave a trace of warmth behind.<br></br>An afterimage of<em> la petite mort</em>,<br></br>the comfort of oblivious sleep;<br></br>the edges of experience blur<br></br>and hint at blisses we can’t keep.<br></br><br></br>The best parts lie just out of grasp,<br></br>we tell ourselves; we keep content<br></br>to live beyond the reach of joy<br></br>until our lives are fully spent.<br></br><br></br>These fleeting things that sight can’t bear,<br></br>these haunting ghosts of ecstasy,<br></br>leave deep lacunas lingering<br></br>in yet-unwritten history.<br></br>They leave the dreams of coming days<br></br>dyed in inverted afterglows:<br></br>the ache for something yet to be,<br></br>a secret glee that no-one knows.<br></br><br></br>So this, it seems, is pleasure’s form: <br></br>a blip upon the radar screen.<br></br>Chased with dauntless vigor, <br></br>but hardly ever seen.<br></br>

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/05/21/afterimage/

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seanpatrick.phd, 20 days ago to poetry

For several million years, we’ve bowed to fate,<br></br>we’ve been locked in an arms race eons old.<br></br>It’s only now we can retaliate<br></br>against the architect; we’ve rolled<br></br>the dice of evolution many times,<br></br>and been subjected to its harsh selection.<br></br><br></br>We’ve been the victim of its many crimes.<br></br>Now we’ve perfected our means of protection,<br></br>and tamed the outer world – but not the inner.<br></br><br></br>This life belongs to you, the fittest ape,<br></br>in this long game you are the winner –<br></br>you are the pinnacle and can escape<br></br>the chains of selfish interest placed at birth:<br></br>create the world you wish to see on Earth.<br></br>

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/05/19/sonnet-for-a-selector/

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seanpatrick.phd, 28 days ago to poetry

A burst of color in bespeckled night,<br></br>you came into my life like foxfire’s glow:<br></br>and I was left agape beneath your light,<br></br>a dancing phosphorescence on the snow.<br></br><br></br>I tried awhile to catch you in my grip,<br></br>like clay that reaches upward to the sun;<br></br>and earthbound I, like sunlit dirt, would slip<br></br>and end our rendezvous ere it begun.<br></br><br></br>Aurora, how I long to watch you dance!<br></br>Once in my lifetime I had eyes to see<br></br>your form across the starlit night by chance;<br></br>to some you’re commonplace, but not to me.<br></br><br></br>Aurora, you who animates the sky,<br></br>I’ll never hold you, but I’ll always try.<br></br>

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/05/11/sonnet-for-an-aurora/

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seanpatrick.phd, 30 days ago to poetry

If you look close enough at life,<br></br>observe with care the galaxy<br></br>and navel-gaze for long enough,<br></br>you will in time be made to see<br></br>we cannot by mere science find<br></br>an answer to the question why;<br></br>our lamp-oil may be well refined,<br></br>but we will still in darkness die.<br></br><br></br>We live atop a heavy tower<br></br>that teeters on its burdened base:<br></br>we drink a fresh-poured pint of power<br></br>and revel in our heightened place.<br></br>By intellect we’ve donned the crown,<br></br>from Babel’s peak we now aspire;<br></br>yet we’ve neglected to look down<br></br>and see the fundaments on fire.<br></br><br></br>Our morals have not matched our means:<br></br>for in this world that we’ve designed,<br></br>self-interest coldly contravenes<br></br>our common cause, and leaves us blind.<br></br>We’ve found a thousand ways to kill<br></br>but lost the ways to live, to feel –<br></br>we have engineered a modern marvel<br></br>and fallen asleep at the wheel.<br></br>

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/05/09/babel/

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