Solipsism and Stoicism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798841120629)

Authors are routinely advised to write about that which they know, and so, accordingly, my first toe dip into the world of poetry, "Songs from the Heartland," focused on family stories, absurdities to which the response "you think too much" could be understood and forgiven, and frustration with the world around me - topics with which I am intimately familiar. (Maybe I'll someday write a poem about run-on sentences.) This second collection focuses the mind in a way that "Songs" never did (although there are still elements of lore, tangential thoughts, and irksome behavior).

The prologue recognizes the duality of the Midwest, with each section expanding on that duality by exploring the temptation and temperance; the depravity and discipline; the passion and patience; the bluster and balance that tenuously coexist.

The first section delves into the world of bad decisions, their consequences, and the sometimes understandable resentment that develops as a reaction to those consequences. The second section meditates on the enlightenment available to those willing to seek it in themselves and in those around them.

Together, these two themes - let's call them Solipsism and Stoicism - combine to inform the fatalism that comes from necessarily relying on the inherently unreliable whims of nature, forging a dichotomy of attitude that maintains sanity in an always unpredictable world.

The epilogue memorializes the social contract between the individual and the community regarding that relationship.