poem notes's video: I Used to Think - Trumbull Stickney

I Used to Think -Trumbull Stickney I used to think The mind essential in the body, even As stood the body essential in the mind: Two inseparable things, by nature equal And similar, and in creation’s song Halving the total scale: it is not so. Unlike and cross like driftwood sticks they come Churned in the giddy trough: a chunk of pine, A slab of rosewood: mangled each on each With knocks and friction, or in deadly pain Sheathing each other’s splinters: till at last Without all stuff or shape they’re jetted up Where in the bluish moisture rot whate’er Was vomited in horror from the sea. Source: The Poems of Trumbull Stickney Houghton, Mifflin & Co 1905 A Thought: It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse. -Epictetus, Enchiridion, (125)