——Nihil est, quod credere de se
Non possit.——
Juv. Sat. iv. 70.
Too few reject heaps of praise
from the pulpit raised
a beaming one.
She thinks herself better than she is
and needs others to believe her better than she knows herself to be,
as (((Johnson rambled on through eternity.)))
She needs the mirror of her audience to tell her more, more:
You know we love you more than you love yourself.
Solitude blesses us with ourselves,
the best companion,
said Fred: don’t take him away without a better one.
Mind’s peace, quiet, no talk of others, and invisibility
all the essence of our work.
666 years after Petrarch, a rake chimed
I've been losing friends, and finding peace sounds like a fair trade to me.
While coffee farmers receive a good deal.
Who am I to see
this in others?
Targets can see their arrows coming,
and just get out of the way,
in solitude’s amber cave where their faults glow
and grow and no one knows.
Not the archer.
Until the target moves its feet and says:
So, here I am.
Behind you, let’s go.
Philippe du Col © 2025
