still, the effort to distinguish....

"We are halfway between the lunatic
 and the terrorist.
There is often a thin line
between petty crime
and
Al Qaeda."

    Eric Denece  - french intelligence

what's my line

But if some mind
 very different from ours
were to look upon some property of some curved line
as we do on the evenness of a straight line,
 he would not recognize as such the evenness of a straight line;
 nor would he arrange the elements of his geometry
according to that very different system,
and would investigate quite other relationships
as I have suggested in my notes.
We fashion our geometry on the properties
 of a straight line because
that seems to us
to be the simplest of all.
 But really all lines that are continuous
and of a uniform nature
are just as simple as one another.
Another kind of mind
which might form an equally clear mental perception
 of some property of any one of these curves,
 as we do of the congruence of a straight line,
might believe these curves to be the simplest of all,
and from that property of these curves
build up the elements of a very different geometry,
 referring all other curves to that one,
 just as we compare them to a straight line.
 Indeed, these minds,
 if they noticed and formed an extremely clear perception
 of some property of, say, the parabola,
would not seek, as our geometers do,
to rectify the parabola,
 they would endeavor,
if one may coin the expression,
to parabolify the straight line.

roger joseph boscovich sj

Ah!

the awareness of God
when it comes
so often strikes me as a sense
of finding myself returned
to a place that i had forgotten about
a sense of suddenly finding myself
in the presence of a great love
that i had forgotten was available to me
i find myself saying
"i missed you"
even though i had not been aware
until that very moment
that i was missing anything





   -larceny at it's finest

21st century mandate

strange warriors chanting


We strongly condemn
the use
of any violence
in connection
with protest
against abortion.

  -found on a trailer to a disturbing movie

what was the substitute?

Where an exclusive humanism was undoubtedly available was in Epicureanism.
And it is no surprise that Lucretius
was one of the inspirations for explorations
in the direction of naturalism,
e.g., with Hume.

But Epicureanism just as it was
couldn’t really do the trick.
 It could teach us to achieve ataraxia
by overcoming our illusions about the Gods.
But this wasn’t what was needed for a humanism
which could flourish in the modern context.
For this was becoming one
 in which the power to create moral order in one’s life
 had a rather different shape.
It had to include the active capacity to shape and fashion our world,
natural and social; and it had to be actuated by some drive to human beneficence.
To put this second requirement
in a way which refers back to the religious tradition,
modern humanism, in addition to being activist and interventionist,
had to produce some substituted for....

 agape' .

  - Charles Taylor   (canadian thinker)

condensed morning of snow

comes a day that is useless
snow heaps in schools close
a day february 29th
a day that should not have been
a day loosely added on

nothing of importance happens
all is relativized by happenstance
we prepare for days like this
we know it's all a sham
what we do is loaded with superfluity
we know somehow deeply
that we are expendable

our life is mysterious
because chances are we need not be here
but we are

in an effort to make the best of it
we make something we call a life
we do what we must do to  make it real

yet we never quite rid ourselves
of the truth of our negligibility

how surprised then
when someone shows
a naked eye
and speaks of love

for my vietnamese readers

Khi cầm trên tay một tập thơ hay, là được ôm vào lòng món quà tinh thần quý giá.
 Khi nhà thơ Trần Quang Quý tặng mình các tập thơ của anh, mình đi đâu cũng mang theo,
 đọc và suy ngẫm. Thơ Trần Quang Quý đang nói lên những tiếng nói của thế hệ,
thật nhân bản.

Vì thế mình đã tuyển và dịch 1 tập thơ Trần Quang Quý.
Sau 5 tháng làm việc miệt mài với công trình này,
 chưa thể vừa ý.
Và số phận đã cho mình gặp nhà thơ Jennifer Fossenbell để cùng hòan thành công trình.

Trong những tuần làm việc cùng nhau, mình đã học về ngôn ngữ tiếng
Anh như 1 năm học đại học.
Những ngôn ngữ thơ cao đẹp, lấp lánh,
trí tuệ và giàu cảm xúc.
Jen là người bạn mới, nhưng dường như số phận đã cho mình biết cô ấy từ trước.
Và mình biết rằng chặng đường văn chương của mình luôn có Jen ở bên...
Một tạp chí Mỹ sẽ giới thiệu tập thơ
 Cánh đồng người - thơ Trần Quang Quý mà mình và Jen vừa dịch xong.
Nhà xuất bản hội nhà văn vừa in xong và hôm nay mình cầm
 nó trên tay với 1 cảm xúc dào dạt chân thành.
Bài viết của Jen dưới đây nói hộ bao cảm xúc mà mình,
Jen và nhà thơ Trần Quang Quý đã trải qua khi cùng hợp tác cho công trình.

 - Nguyen Phan Que Mai      living vietnamese poet