31 Comments
User's avatar
Bee Gee's avatar

Wow, you are reading my mind...Just had a conversation about all of this, human consciousness, the "muck" of it all, culture and life, last night with my husband. We sat on the sofa, waxing poetic...and here is Hesse, saying it with much more eloquence. Thank you, right on time!

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jul 18, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Good, True & Beautiful's avatar

that's so beautiful, feel ya.

Expand full comment
Scott's avatar

'Life as we know it' is not a statement. It's really a question.

Expand full comment
Peter Parsons's avatar

All words are trying to become MUSIC!!

Expand full comment
Patris's avatar

Fact

Expand full comment
Lasita's avatar

I was also trying to articulate my faith in Spirit either earlier today or yesterday and then found this and it resonated with me.

Expand full comment
Dian Parker's avatar

Amen is right!

Expand full comment
Tony Siriano's avatar

Not remotely poetry, but important words nonetheless.

Expand full comment
Poetic Outlaws's avatar

This page isn't strictly poetry. "Poetic" isn't simply a genre. I've explained this in the "About" page.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jul 18, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Tony Siriano's avatar

taking statements

and thoughts

and splitting them

into lines

does not transform

mere commentary

into

poetry

Expand full comment
Stephanie Pires's avatar

Yes, it does. But in the sense it's kind of a warning of the content. It means what is written is numinously beheld. It is also an invitation into a very personal space of the author willing to share. I think the form is an important part of the contract.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jul 18, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Tony Siriano's avatar

Please don't get me wrong. I am not against free verse, concrete verse, haiku, etc. Some of my favorite poets do nothing but that and it is true poetry. But there is more to poetry than merely splitting up remarks into lines. Herman Hesse should have known better, in my opinion.

Expand full comment
Poetic Outlaws's avatar

Hermann Hesse didn't split it. I did.

Expand full comment
Conny Borgelioen's avatar

I like the splitting. It slows down the reading. Makes you consider every line more carefully. Sometimes important lines are rushed over when you read a paragraph of prose.

Expand full comment
Jonathan Potter's avatar

I see this splitting activity akin to the notion of a “found poem.” And I applaud Mr. Outlaws for it.

Expand full comment
Good, True & Beautiful's avatar

When you read it out loud, actually the splitting adds in punctuation that I loved. I could hear rhyme and it welled, tumbled, swirled.

Expand full comment
Tony Siriano's avatar

Good to know.

Expand full comment
Patrick J Foster's avatar

Illusionary,

the idea of being

separate from Love.

paje foster

Expand full comment
Joanne Mitchinson's avatar

😄 🤣 😂 All will be revealed at the end could be a complete lie too Humans eh?

Expand full comment
Sloan Bashinsky's avatar

Does this inlclude Facebook groups?

Expand full comment
S.E. Bourne's avatar

sounds bout right.

Expand full comment
Greg Halvorson Blog's avatar

Godless culture is anarchical and debased.

Expand full comment
Greg Halvorson Blog's avatar

Salvation isn't illusory… Jesus Christ's blood apparently escaped Hesse.

Expand full comment
Poetic Outlaws's avatar

"Salvation isn't illusory"-- He never said this. Did you even read the post? He said:

"Certified affiliations, lifelong

membership cards to organize

social structures guarantee

a false comfort, the illusion

of security, the illusionary

ticket to salvation."

Anyway, as Nietzsche once said: “A degree of culture, and assuredly a very high one, is attained when man rises above superstitions and religious notions and fears, and, for instance, no longer believes in guardian angels or in original sin, and has also ceased to talk of the salvation of his soul.”

Expand full comment
Greg Halvorson Blog's avatar

Godless culture is anarchical and debased.

Expand full comment
Greg Halvorson Blog's avatar

No, I said it in response to his erroneous assertion. Maybe you should re-read it.

Expand full comment
Peter's avatar

A beautiful way to call out the con most people fall prey to

Expand full comment
Greg Halvorson Blog's avatar

The big con is that there is no God. No salvation. That we are our own gods. Sad.

Expand full comment
Norm's avatar

The big con is that people say they believe in God because they believe in something bigger than themselves, but then the Gods they worship are always angry, petty, humanoid, paranoid... I'll be impressed by the religion that models their God after a whale, or a rock, or a sunset. Oh, wait, they used to do that, and your God gave your people permission to run around and slaughter them.... nice guy, I'm sure.

Expand full comment
marilyn dyck's avatar

So appreciate this piece!!

Thank you Hermann!

The clamour and energies expended on certainties secures the non- thinking brain to rubber stamp DONE!!!!

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jul 18, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Jonathan Potter's avatar

I’m right there with ya

Expand full comment