BusterStronghart@Gmail.com

He was one of those not born for death--unlike the rest of us born between the poles.
"What are a hundred years, a thousand years, when a single instant effaces all of them."
Alan Badiou

When the cage opens after thirty years you can't fly anywhere.

He who follows another will never overtake him.

When I die I'll discover that I really hadn't lived or as Thoreau put it, "that one has lived what was not life."

Enslaved to work and to the attempt to make money my soul has been crushed--we all create our own jails, (Gary Watson, Salmagundi, nos 164-165)

And of course, my favorite, Cavafy, "the Walls"

Walls

Without regard, compassion or shame,
they built around me great high walls.

And I sit here now, and despair.
No other thought: My fate eats me.

Because I had so many things to do outside.
Alas, when they were building the walls
How could I not pay attention?

But I never heard noise from the builders, not a
sound.
Without my notice the closed me in from the world
outside.

C. P. Cavafy, 1896 - '97

translator: Alan A. Boegehold


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Walls

Without pity, without shame, without consideration
They've built around me enormous, towering walls.

And I sit here now in growing desperation.
This fate consumes my mind, I think of nothing else:

Because I had so many things to do out there.
O while they built the walls, why did I not look out?

But no noise, no sound from the builders did I hear.
Imperceptively they shut me off from the world without.

C.P. Cavafy, 1896-'97

Translator, Daniel Mendelson.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here's a weaker translation:

Walls
With no consideration, no pity, no shame,
they have built walls around me, thick and high.
And now I sit here feeling hopeless.
I can't think of anything else: this fate gnaws my mind -
because I had so much to do outside.
When they were building the walls, how could I not have noticed!
But I never heard the builders, not a sound.
Imperceptibly they have closed me off from the outside world.

Constantine P. Cavafy

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"who built these walls? -- me," for starters.