Free Range Egg

1. "I tell you, the egg is but a means to an end..."

2. "Yes, Egg is something to be overcome."

3. [SLAM!] "All that ain't for me...you see..."

4. "I'm proud to be an egg!"

5. "Egg is in!"

6. "And I'm an egg about town." ["Here we go!; "Wheeee, Yah!]

7. "Don't put us all in that basket!"

8. "So you see, guys, I'm a free range egg now!"

I never feel myself on the group chat

Every face is 

like a window

(a mirror). 

Every face seems my own

for a moment

(if it speaks clearly,

if I listen carefully).

I am among them

and experience them all

at the same time.

Yet, when I look closely

at my own visage

it seems false

and distant.

I extend myself to those others 

in close sympathy;

myself, I experience at a

                                         l

                                          a

                                            g.

Beyond the Pleasure Principle

I never got Beyond 

the Pleasure Principle;

I couldn't figure id out.

Proud Egg Cartoon #2

1. "This here...is Egg City"

2. "Who am I? Okay, sure, I'm an egg"

3. "But not just any egg"

4. "I'm a BAD EGG. Rotten to the CORE"

5. "I got a feverish desire for FAME"

6. "But lately...I been crackin' up"

7. "My head is all scrambled" 

8. "So I'm gettin' outta' here... Leavin' Egg City for good!"

Proud Egg Cartoon #1

1: Call everyone in. Tell them...

2: I'm proud to be an egg!

3: After all...at the end of the day, it's all "over easy"

4: But all yolking (joking) aside, being an egg ain’t easy...

5: Sometimes, I think there’s something... I don’t know...growing inside me!

Daybreak

 

Daybreak

 

Hopes sown out of season cling

Like bulbs in frozen ground

To aspirations of Spring

 

Yet Summer’s decadence cannot abate

Autumnal declines and long winters bound

To negate

 

Just as the Sun with Sisyphus’ might

Presses up and across the horizon

Before sliding into night

 

That which remains must evolve

Change displaces but also enlivens

Those who spring with new resolve

 

-James B. Moog

Advanced Leisure

I started another blog that I will loosely term a "lifestyle blog." It is really a place for meditating on the nuances of everyday objects and the time that we pass as "leisure." My first post is on chairs. I came up with this idea as a means to prompt myself to think about an everyday object in more creative ways. The more I thought about the subject, the more I realized that such an exercise can be very fun and even surprising at times. I hope that you will check it out. Thank you for reading!

Zarathustra Descends the Mountain

Drawn by my wife Emily and adapted from Walter Kaufmann's translation.

WUSTL Life-Lines (4/24/20)

Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.

     Remote
     Shelter
     Digital
     Breathe
     Distance


It is easier to breathe
at a remote distance—
in my digital shelter,
for instance.
-James B. Moog

Poems submitted for April 24

WUSTL Life-Lines (4/23/20)

Today’s prompt
Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.
     Aspen
     Shadow
     Fever
     Hidden
     Promise

Aspen now hidden.
A promise of fever
Lingers like a shadow.

-James B. Moog

Poems submitted for April 23

WUSTL Life/Lines (4/20/20)

April 20

Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.

Breath
Last
Rage
Close
Fortune

“Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses.”
King Agamemnon held his fortune too close, his pride doubly cursing his great fighters’ their bodies made carrion.
Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, incensed by the dishonorable treatment of his priest by mortal Agamemnon,swept a fatal plague through the army that spread upon man’s own breath.
Man killing Rage flowed through Achilles’ blade as well, driving it toward his King but Pallas Athena appeared before him beckoning caution.
Wise men fear the Gods and Achilles stayed his rage and returned to his men at last.

Poems submitted for April 20