Inside the margins, or: My days

A Sijo

the week's demands keep gathering inside the margins of my days; every opening closes fast beneath another small request; yet unwritten lines linger as I drift more off-kilter

Reena’s Xploration Challenge 433

For Reena’s RXC prompt, she invites us to compose poems inspired by this image of three miniature figures dressed like medieval scribes kneeling on a large sheet of paper, writing with quill pens while a faint clock face and calendar are superimposed beneath them. A laptop sits in the corner of the desk, creating a surreal image that suggests the labor of writing, planning, and managing time.

Sijo?

A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five. Originally intended as songs, sijo can treat romantic, metaphysical, or spiritual themes. Whatever the subject, the first line introduces an idea or story, the second supplies a “turn,” and the third provides closure. Modern sijo are sometimes printed in six lines.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

#Balance #Creativity #Discipline #Distraction #Obligation #Persistence #Poem #Poetry #Pressure #Sijo #Time

A quotation from Jane Fonda

When a child enters the world through you, it alters everything on a psychic, psychological and purely practical level. You’re just not free anymore to do what you want to do. And it’s not the same again. Ever.

Jane Fonda (b. 1937) American actress and activist
Interview (1980-11-28) by Danae Brook, “At Home with Tom and Jane,” Los Angeles Weekly

More about this quote: wist.info/fonda-jane/83855/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #janefonda #change #children #commitment #dependence #freedom #obligation #parent #parenting

Fonda, Jane - Interview (1980-11-28) by Danae Brook, "At Home with Tom and Jane," Los Angeles Weekly | WIST Quotations

When a child enters the world through you, it alters everything on a psychic, psychological and purely practical level. You're just not free anymore to do what you want to do. And it's not the same again. Ever.

WIST Quotations
UN countries agree on legal obligation to address climate change
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted 141–8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address ‌climate change, with the world's biggest historical emitter the United States among those opposing it.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/un-resolution-icj-climate-9.7207168?cmp=rss
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/un-vote-support-icj-world-court-climate-change-opinion; https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/23/healthy-environment-is-a-human-right-top-un-court-rules. "The #UN [General Assembly] has voted 141-8 to adopt a #resolution backing [an ICJ] opinion that #countries have a #legal #obligation to address #climatechange, with the #US - which is the world’s biggest historical emitter - among the small group opposing it... 28 countries abstained... The US joined #SaudiArabia, #Russia, #Israel, #Iran, #Yemen, #Liberia & #Belarus in opposing the resolution on Wednesday."
UN backs historic climate crisis ruling, despite US attempts to stop resolution

The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters – opposed the measure

The Guardian
There is no mistaking the demand of the physical world #circumstances. There is no denying that if you want to be #free then you have an #obligation to assert that freedom. It is an act of will. This Is #war and whether it devolves into even more #violence in our streets is unclear but seems likely.
Those in the highest positions of #service have highest #obligation, cuz it's not authority, cuz we are the #authority that granted opportunity to perform service & we're going to prove that shit real soon. This does not stand. MAGA does not stand. JOHN #ROBERTS IS A #CRIMINAL. PROSECUTE #SCOTUS.

A quotation from The Talmud

It is not yours to finish the task, but neither are you free to set it aside.
 
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.


The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Mishnah, Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers; פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת] 2:16

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/talmud/35632/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #talmud #mishnah #accomplishment #aspiration #completion #duty #endeavor #finish #ideal #keeptrying #labor #obligation #quest #success #task #work

A quotation from Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I have no sympathy with the old idea that children owe such immense gratitude to their parents that they can never fulfill their obligations to them. I think the obligation is all on the other side.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) American social activist, abolitionist, woman's suffragist
Journal (1880-11-12)

More about this quote: wist.info/stanton-elizabeth-ca…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #elizabethcadystanton #accountability #children #duty #filialduty #gratitude #obligation #offspring #parenting #parents

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady - Journal (1880-11-12) | WIST Quotations

I have no sympathy with the old idea that children owe such immense gratitude to their parents that they can never fulfill their obligations to them. I think the obligation is all on the other side.

WIST Quotations
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/28/israels-direction-poses-existential-threat-to-judaism-uks-leading-progressive-rabbis-warn. "The UK’s most senior #progressive #rabbis have warned that Israel’s current #political direction risks becoming 'incompatible with #Jewish #values', while insisting that #criticism of the country’s #Government is 'a Jewish #obligation' rather than an act of #disloyalty." Indeed! So much for criticism of #Israel being #antisemitism! That is a very convenient #myth for the likes of #Netanyahu & his #supporters.
Israel’s direction poses ‘existential threat’ to Judaism, UK’s leading progressive rabbis warn

Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy say criticising Israeli government is not disloyalty but a Jewish obligation

The Guardian

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

If, as I suggested before, the ability to tell right from wrong should turn out to have anything to do with the ability to think, then we must be able to “demand” its exercise from every sane person, no matter how erudite or ignorant, intelligent or stupid, he may happen to be.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Life of the Mind, Vol. 1 “Thinking,” Introduction (1977)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/44349/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #accountability #agency #discernment #freewill #ignorance #intelligence #judgment #moralagency #morality #obligation #responsibility #thinking #thoughtfulness

Arendt, Hannah - Life of the Mind, Vol. 1 "Thinking," Introduction (1977) | WIST Quotations

If, as I suggested before, the ability to tell right from wrong should turn out to have anything to do with the ability to think, then we must be able to "demand" its exercise from every sane person, no matter how erudite or ignorant, intelligent or stupid, he may happen…

WIST Quotations