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	<title>Civic Studies &#187; verse and worse</title>
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		<title>The Tangle</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35611</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35611#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 13:09:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Buddhism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35611</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Snarled, knotted&#8212;these neurons got as tangledAs the hair on top. The living are snaggedIn their own matted mess, they are this thatch.Who, I ask you, can fix such a tangle?&#8221;&#8220;A person. Ethical. Concentrating. Insightful. Methodical yet ardent.Someone who has fully accepted this task.This person can unravel the tangle.&#8220;Desire, hatred, and ignorance fadeWhile you pay attention [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35611">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Sadness is a Light Kindled in the Heart</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35155</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35155#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:53:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Continental philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[In 1943, Hannah Arendt published an article entitled &#8220;We Refugees&#8221; in a Jewish-oriented New York magazine, Menorah Journal. Here she observes that her fellow exiles act like optimists in public, for they want to banish their terrors and assimilate to an optimistic American society. The exceptions are the ones who can&#8217;t maintain the appearance and [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35155">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2026/01/26/sadness-is-a-light-kindled-in-the-heart/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Caedmon’s Hymn and modern responses</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35081</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35081#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[notes on poems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[According to Edward Hirsh, &#8220;English poetry began with a vision.&#8221; He&#8217;s referring to &#8220;Caedmon&#8217;s Hymn,&#8221; probably the earliest surviving verse in Old English. It&#8217;s embedded in a story that Bede wrote around the year 730 CE. Seamus Heaney calls this story &#8220;the myth of the beginning of English sacred poetry.&#8221; Bede tells of an exemplary [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35081">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2026/01/12/caedmons-hymn-and-modern-responses/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The City, by Cavafy</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34920</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34920#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:17:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34920</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Constantine Cavafy wrote &#8220;The City&#8221; in 1894. This poem doesn&#8217;t speak for me or articulate feelings that I happen to hold. But it is a famous work that is difficult to render in other languages, particularly because the original is densely rhymed. I gave it a try: You said: I will get out of here, [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34920">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>If the sky were seen for the first time</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34334</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34334#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:23:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34334</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Now give us your true mind, turn to reason.A new thing is trying to reach your ears To reveal itself to you in novel forms.But nothing is so simple that it is notAt first hard to believe, nor any marvel So great that we don&#8217;t soon forget our wonder.The sky&#8217;s clear and pure color, so [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34334">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/08/21/if-the-sky-were-seen-for-the-first-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Day of My Life</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34250</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34250#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:35:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34250</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I wish I did not have that human wish,The wish that today were a different day,But the wish that pours forth in the song of a bird:&#8220;May it be this same day, so may it be.&#8221;No, a bird sings not to say but to be.It grants a wish just by being heard.I wish I didn&#8217;t [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34250">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Hannah Arendt: I’m Nothing but a Little Dot</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34083</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34083#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2025 14:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34083</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(Cincinnati) In 1947, Hannah Arendt wrote a short poem, &#8220;Ich bin ja nur ein kleiner Punkt,&#8221; which Samantha Rose Hill accurately and ably translates as &#8220;I am just a little point / no more than a spot. &#8230;&#8221; I took more liberty to make this translation, imitating Arendt&#8217;s strong rhyme-scheme: I&#8217;m nothing but a little [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34083">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/05/22/hannah-arendt-im-nothing-but-a-little-dot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>This is beautiful, scolds the mind</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33910</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33910#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2025 13:56:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33910</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is beautiful, scolds the mind,Seeing the mind wandering.It ransacks its lexicon to findOther words, ponderingLovely, rare, or perhaps sublimeAs sounds with which to hold the mindThat skitters anxiously through timeAnd which the things in view remindOf other things undone, unfixed.Disapproving, the mind regardsItself distracted, not transfixed.The whole it had glimpsed: now in shards.The mind [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33910">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/04/21/this-is-beautiful-scolds-the-mind/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>intimations</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33816</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33816#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Mar 2025 13:38:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Small plants near the sea, I think, are naive.They push their little roots down through the loamAs if they grew far from where the tides upheave.They set out their ripening buds for beesNever acknowledging gulls, fish, or foam--As if they need not consider the factOf the water, impenetrably deep.Their petals vibrate in the humid breezeAs [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33816">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Cuttings: Ninety-Nine Essays About Happiness</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33215</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33215#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:33:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Buddhism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[epistemic networks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Greek philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[verse and worse]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Cuttings is a book in progress that consists of 99 essays about the inner life: about suffering, happiness, compassion, and related themes. I first posted each of the essays on this blog, which is 22 years old today and has accumulated more than 2,400 posts. I&#8217;ve selected the contents of Cuttings carefully from this archive, [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33215">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/01/08/cuttings-ninety-nine-essays-about-happiness/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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