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He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

Maxims and Arrows, 12

http://thenietzschechannel.fws1.com/popular.htm
The Nietzche Channel: Friedrich Nietzsche: Popular Quotations


This journal was started when I was sunk in very deep depression, and the fight against depression will remain one of the main themes. However, for me poetry is one way of regaining health and balance, so that is another major theme here. Inevitably, a third theme is sexuality.

Some of the poems are in free verse, others follow a form known as the tanka, which derives from classical Japanese poetry. In the Japanese, most tanka have thirty-one "onji" or "sound-characters" arranged in five units of 5-7-5-7-7 onji. These are not the same as syllables, but in English it has become fairly common to write tanka using five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. Another way of adapting the form to English is to use lines that are roughly shorter-longer-shorter-longer-longer. Many of the tanka are love poems which involve some aspect of nature. This practice also follows a classical Japanese precedent, where the word "koi," usually translated "love," is actually more similar to "longing."

The icon is of an okina mask -- used in classical Japanese Noh drama. It is an old man's mask, and thus suits me perfectly.