Excerpts:

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   Preface:

  "Although this collection is my first publication, I have been writing for as long as I can remember. When I was in elementary school I hand wrote a small book containing facts and illustrations of mammals, and in middle school I frequently wrote short stories on all manners of whimsical topics. But as I’ve gotten older and have been introduced to more mature topics through school and my own independent reading, I have noticed my writing shifting towards dealing primarily with different aspects of the human condition. The human condition is defined as the characteristics, key events, and situations which compose the essentials of human existence. 

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  The human condition encompasses arguably limitless subjects, but this collection is divided up into sections containing poems in a few topics of the human condition that I am most interested in. A number of events in my life have catalyzed my curiosity in the areas you will read about shortly. 

One of the most influential events I experienced was a course I took called Philosophy of Time. This class caused myself and my classmates to experience frequent existential crises from our discussions about everything from Immanuel Kant’s theory of Transcendental Ideality and Empirical Reality, to Soren Kierkegaard’s thoughts on what it meant to live as a human being and who said that “… to have a self, to be a self, is the greatest concession made to man, but at the same time is eternity’s demand upon him,” to Friedrich Nietzsche who believed that a person only lives once and then ceases to exist, and thus must be aggressive in living the short life they have.  This class and the reading we did in it permanently piqued my interest in the ephemerality of life and how our perception of time affects our actions in the present.

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  This led to my independent research and reading into Nihilism and Existentialism. One aspect of Existentialism that leapt out at me was the “Existential Attitude”, what many existentialists call the individual’s starting point, characterized by a sense of “disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.” These factors are the influence behind many of my poems in the sections of “Purpose in the Face of Insignificance,” “Morality and Rebirth,” and “Time and Change.”

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  The section titled “The Role of Suffering,” is heavily influenced by my in depth research into the principles of Buddhism. Of the many things I learned, I was especially curious about how Buddhists viewed suffering. A quote I’ve long appreciated is: “We suffer because we are projecting the myth of permanence upon a situation that is actually conditioned, selfless, and constantly changing. Everything is interrelated and interdependent… Samsara, ‘the cycle of suffering,’ is a direct result of our desire for permanence.” The Buddha said that “All I teach is suffering and the end of suffering,” and their views that suffering was a joyous opportunity heavily affected my relationship with hardship in my own life and impacted much of my writing. 

In addition to these topics, my poems include reflection on everything from the political climate today, specifically the struggle between apathy and action, and human beings’ natural desire to create change, to reflections on human relationships, both romantic and platonic, positive and negative. 

My own experiences have also influenced the views I take and subjects I write about in my poetry. At this time in my life, I am very focused on my future- particularly regarding attending college in less than a year and my goals for the future. This period of change has shaped how I look at the passage of time, impermanence, and purpose. 

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  Not all aspects of the human condition are glamorous- most aren’t- or even necessarily positive. Although some of these poems can appear morose or pessimistic, they all deal abstractly with real life occurrences and conflicts. I find it very valuable to look at these topics objectively and realistically, and make an effort to describe and qualify matters like these. Analysis of these subjects, especially with their relevancy to human life, can provide insight into the world, the minds of people around us, the intricacy of the human experience, and the ways humans deal with conflict."

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