On Living Well

What is it to live well?

It’s not what it was yesterday!

The lessons of the sages no more tell

Us in their contemplative way.

I strive on, though, as best I can,

And in verses put my trust.

The world has given me this phone,

As owners give a dog a bone.

I write on it because I must.

One hopes, I guess, to get some gnosis,

Or so a hungry dog supposes.

Dying, language still loves rhymes,

As long it loved in former times.

Grammar might be shot to hell,

But words may teach a dog to spell,

Perhaps save its world with doggerel?

"How complicated and hard it is to live simply!"—Ivan Goncharov, Oblomov: A Novel (trans. Marian Schwartz)

Wednesday, August 5, 2026