Uncertainty, madness, and poetry...

In the mailbox this morning... synchronicity and links. See links collected at the end:

Uncertainty is the price of beauty, and integrity the only compass for the territory of uncertainty that constitutes the landmass of any given life....uncertainty... is our own singular path, unplotted by our anxious younger selves, untrodden by anyone else. – Maria Popova

Ah, poetry is close, I think, to madness. – Coleman Barks

We live on the lip of insanity. It’s true. – on the lip of insanity we live wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It sometimes opens. Keep knocking, and it will open. And when it does we realize we've been knocking from the inside. – after Rumi (see Barks, below).

“You think I know what I’m doing? That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself? As much as a pen knows what it’s writing or the ball can guess where it’s going next.” – Rumi (transl. Barks) .

“If you want what visible reality can give, you’re an employee. If you want the unseen world, you’re not living your truth. Both wishes are foolish. But you’ll be forgiven for forgetting that what you really want is love’s confusing joy. – Rumi (transl. Robert Bly).

My ego is stubborn, often drunk, impolite. My loving finely sensitive, impatient, confused. Please take messages from one to the other. – Bly

“I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, ‘It tastes sweet, does it not?’ ‘You’ve caught me,” Grief answered, “and you’ve ruined my business. How can I sell sorrow when you know it’s a blessing?” – Rumi (transl. Barks)

Here are links for this morning's blog:

For Coleman Barks at Poetry Foundation. Barks website

For Robert Bly at Poetry Foundation. Bly website.

For Maria Popova at The Marginalian