A Poet's Journal: November 21st, 2013

November 21st, 2013

It is unfortunate to see idleness as negative; for it is a rare thing for one to admit that staring at a wall can bring our livelihood to its ultimate goal, and it is of no concern of ours with what way we occupy our time, as long as we can account for it and produce facts against the contrary.  Do your duty and live well, most of us will say, and the common turn of solitude shall withhold its obligations.  But there is an august reflection in all this: that we are far from ourselves when we would be most intimate, and the idleness we look upon with such offensive gaze, the dearest part of our most successful activity.

Douglas Thornton