Acknowledgements:
The utmost value I can attribute to words is this. They bid us look for things
. . . From words we can learn only words. Indeed we can learn only their
sound and noise. St. Augustine, “De Magistro,” xi, 36.
This has cost me the greatest effort and still costs me the greatest effort: to
grasp that what things are called is of infinitely greater importance than what
they are . . . It is sufficient to create new names and values and probabilities
in order to create in the long run new ‘things.’ Nietzsche, “Die Froehliche
Wissenschaft” 58, “Nur als Schaffende”
The accuracy of accurate letters is an accuracy with respect to the structure
of reality. Wallace Stevens, “Three Academic Pieces”
***
Topic:
It’s great to be a primate
with a brain to learn at school
and a hand to grasp a tool.
It’s great to be the food chain’s pinnacle,
the only predator
without a competitor.
This and following pages Copyright 2012 Allan R. Black, Tyler, TX
All rights reserved
