Moderation is Not a Negation of Intensity but Helps Avoid Monotony

Will you stop for a while, stop trying to pull yourself together
for some clear "meaning"-- some momentary summary?
        No one
can have poetry or dances, prayers or climaxes all day;
the ordinary blankness of little dramatic consciousness is good for the health sometimes
only Dostoevsky can be Dostoevskian at such long,
        long, tumultuous stretches;
look what the intensity did to poor Van Gogh!;
        linger, lunge
scrounge and be stupid, that doesn't take much centering of one's forces;
as wise Whitman said "lounge and invite the soul."
        Get enough sleep;
and not only because (as Cocteau said) "poetry is the literature of sleep;"
be a dumb bell for a few minutes at least;
we don't want Sunday church bells
        ringing constantly

---John Tagliabue