A Man Said to the Universe by Stephen Crane

A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

Sharon Van Etten, Seventeen

"Bach is how buildings got taller. It's how we got to the moon." ~ Charles Mingus

Meredith Monk, Ellis Island

Julius Eastman, Femenine

”Our eyes are full of terrible confessions.” ~ Anne Sexton

Edvard Munch, Death in the Sickroom, 1893

Counsel by Bukowski

I am living in hell, he told me, and I said, is that right,
Frankie? and he said, I am truly living in hell, you
would never believe it.
everything, he continued, has hardened into a repetitious
march to nowhere.
is that right, Frankie? fucking-a, he said, you ever
been locked into a situation where the only escape is
death?
yes, I told him.
then what do you do? he asked.
Frankie, I just wait, death is coming anyhow.
but, he told me, I can’t wait.
Frankie, you’ll wait.
why, he asked me, is pain the most present and constant
thing in life?
physical pain is hard to explain, Frankie, but I know what
causes most spiritual pain.
yeah? yeah? he asked.
most spiritual pain, my lad, is caused by
too much expectation.
yeah? yeah? he asked.
too much expectation, I said, try to avoid it.
do you? he asked.
yes, more and more I expect less and less.
and do you get less?
almost always, Frankie.
damn, he said, it always helps to talk to you, you’ve been
around the block.
I’m afraid so, Frankie.
he asked, did you ever think you would live this long?
Frankie, I haven’t lived this long, I’ve lasted this
long, good
night.

I hung up the receiver and pulled the
bottle
toward me.

"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.” ~ Elie Wiesel

Arnold Böcklin, The Isle of the Dead, 1883

Rachmaninoff, The Isle of the Dead, Symphonic poem Op. 29, 1908

Guglielmo Pugi, The Girl with the butterfly, 1902

Antonio Canova , Hercules and Lichas , 1795

Franz von Bayros, Illustration from Dante's 'Divine Comedy', Inferno, Canto XIX, 1921

William Henry Dethlef Koerner, A Mystical Incantation, 1922

Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret , Marguerite at the Sabbath , 1910

” Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.” ~ Carl von Clausewitz

"To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself." ~ Henry Miller

Aaron Westerberg, Noir in Green, 2023

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 4

Francesco Queirolo, The Release from Deception, 1759