Japanese Death Poems A Book by Yoel Hoffman www.goodreads.com The haikuSpring snowAn entrance, an exitPoppiesCoolness will rise+4 More Graceful Exits: How Great Beings DiePoems of an Indian summerHe only who has lived with the beautiful deathpoetrynaturemelancholyzen
The mortifying ordeal of being known A Fragment by Tim Kreider opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com Years ago a friend of mine had a dream about a strange invention; a staircase you could descend deep underground, in which you heard recordings of all the things anyone had ever said about you, both good and bad. The catch was, you had to pass through all the worst things people had said before you could get to the highest compliments at the very bottom. There is no way I would ever make it more than two and a half steps down such a staircase, but I understand its terrible logic: if we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. lovehumanity