Two Poem Drafts

The World Is Bright

The world is bright
and filled with glowing light of day;
the air is clear
and in the forest deer are found,
where scarce a sound
is heard the land around, save song
of living throng
in day's delight.

 Epaulia

Our love is like the sunshine on the lawn today;
I awoke, life was good, and all was fair today.
The world cannot bring shadows dark enough to hide
our brilliant love, for we can have no care today,
and fools may laugh, thus known to be but stupid fools,
for morning song is leaping everywhere today;
it could not be otherwise, my love, this light,
for in every place I look, you are there today.
As bright as burning brand, my glowing face shall shine:
reflection from your light is all I wear today.

Strange, Fiery Crowns Crested the Sea-Cliffs Dun

 Tintagel
by Aubrey De Vere 

When first remote Tintagel met mine eyes
 Between its bastions and the setting sun
 Cloud-pageantries of conflicts lost and won
 Rushed madly, so it seemed, through reddening skies:
 The glooming wave was streaked with sanguine dyes;
 Strange, fiery crowns crested the sea-cliffs dun,
 The caves beneath them, black as Acheron
 Blended their widow-wails with onset cries
 From Bostcastle and Bude. There moved in power
 Arthur, the King! No knightly mail he wore,
 No charger strode. Thundered his battle-axe
 Upon the flying Northmen's iron backs.
 Sunlike that long-haired Briton shone that hour;
 Fast fled the heathen o'er that ship-thronged shore!

Links of Note

 * Nicolas Zaks, Plato's Classification of Change (PDF)

* Raphael, The Metaphysics of Plato's Political and Moral Philosophy, at "A Just Logos"

* James Read, Why philosophy of physics?, at "Aeon"

* Brian Niemeier, The Ring Is Not What You Think, at "Kairos Publications"

* Richard Yetter Chappell, Preference and Prevention: A New Paradox of Deontology (PDF). Having read this a few times, I'm inclined to think that most deontologists do not face this particular paradox; it seems to arise only if you assume a deontological theory of moral obligation with a consequentialist approach to preferential value. But most deontologists assume that we are obligated to re-align our preferences in such a way as to give priority to deontic principles ('respect for moral law' and the like); and I don't see that the paradox would arise on assumptions of preferences re-aligned in such a way. That is, the paradox is really due to the fact that if you are going to be deontological, you have to be consistently so. Nonetheless, this is an interesting argument even so, and perhaps there are subtler features to the argument that I'm not seeing.

* Patrick Flynn and Mike Schramm, I am, whether I think or not, at "The Journal of Absolute Truth"

* Mark A. Brewer, Regulatory Kinds: A Metaphysical Framework for Epistemically Stabilized Social Classification (PDF)

* Vanessa A. Seifert, Chemical causal relations across different levels of description (PDF)

* Robert Koons, Warranted Group Belief (PDF)

* Woarna, S4 is Inadequate as a Logic of Formal Provability, at "Lambda Continuum"

* Cameron Harwick, The University in the AI Era

* Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, OP, The Continuity Between the Prima pars and the Secunda pars of the Summa Theologiae, at "A Thomist"

* Conor Feehly, How Much Energy Does It Take to Think?, at "Quanta". As I've noted before, all the evidence is that, while our brains are energy hogs, almost all the energy goes to keeping the brain up and running, and the amount of energy it takes beyond that for the brain to do anything is so miniscule it is difficult to measure. It takes huge amounts of energy to have a brain, very little to use it. The 5%-beyond-resting-energy that they suggest here is very much on the higher side of what I've seen, and I would guess that this is really just the upper limit of what is consistent with well-established evidence. But even if we take the 5% value straight, it's something that only adds up over an extended period of time.

*Jennifer Egan, How Jane Austen Pulled It Off: On Emma, at "The Paris Review"

Corpus Christi

 Pange Lingua
by Thomas Aquinas

Sing, my tongue, of glorious
mystery of the Body,
also of the precious Blood,
in which the price of the world,
the fruit of generous womb,
the King of Nations, flowed forth. 

 For us given, for us born
from the untouched Virgin,
He dwelt in the world
after seed of the Word was sown;
his enclosure ended the wait
with marvelous order. 

 On the night of the Last Supper,
reclining with His brothers,
having fully observed the Law
with the lawful meal,
He as food to the crowd of the Twelve
gave Himself with His own hands. 

 Word made flesh, true bread
into flesh makes by His word
and wine becomes Blood of Christ.
Even if the senses fail,
to establish sincere heart
faith alone suffices. 

 Such sacrament we therefore
reverence, bowing down,
and ancient covenant
gives way to new rite:
Faith stands as supplement
to failure of the senses. 

 To Begetter and Begotten
praise and jubilation be,
strength and honor, might as well,
and also blessing be;
and to the one who proceeds from both
equally be the praise.

My very rough translation.