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Fears are like dragons
Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasure. Rainer Maria Rilke I love this quote. One, because it involves dragons, and two, because it’s thought-provoking. It’s a quote that makes sense on the surface and simultaneously perplexes me on a deeper level. It’s perplexing because I wonder about those deep-seated, dragon-like fears. Have I correctly identified those fears? Do I dare name those dragons? It goes without saying that our fears change with the passage of time. Mine have, certainly. For 20+ years after leaving Africa, nightmares plagued me, and my greatest fear was returning to my troubled motherland. Before I completed my first novel, my greatest…
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Be careful what you wish for
They say, ‘be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.’ But that statement is rather singular in my opinion. Singular, because it doesn’t take into account the multi-faceted fuckery that is part and parcel of life. Let’s face it, no decision to change or move beyond your comfort zone will ever be made in a void. Meaning, everything you do will be subject to people—who have their own baggage, their own agendas, etc. In which case, it’s probably more fitting to say ‘be careful of who is already on the other side of what you wish for.’ For instance, who is on the other…
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Mathematics (a poem)
Mathematics a poem by Bianca Bowers It is August sixteenth, and I am fuller than I wish to be Winter has crept inside me with all the stealth of a spy I let my forty fifth birthday pass, three days ago, without so much as a wink Like a crowd of strangers, I spurned its presence, kept my eyes on the floor The full moon coincided with it all I shed blood, reflecting moreover on that inconvenient hourglass that will soon dry up along with any superficial beauty I might have possessed once upon a summer ago But as I write this pathetic account of a woman…
