Two Stoics

by Jeffrey Burghauser (November 2018)

Engraving from a 1704 edition of Meditations, published in Oxford.

 

 

[1] Marcus Aurelius

 

Is our dear Marcus Aurelius

A pessimist for maintaining that

(Life being a balls-exploding brat)

At the day’s demise, the only This

Upon which a man may hope to get

Some restraint is his own silly brain—

Or (indeed) an optimist for main-

Taining the very same postulate?

 

Philosophic epigrams may stamp

The air’s hide: impotent as flowers,

Desperate as a note of copyright.

There’s a grievance in the oil lamp.

She’s my infant, and can’t sleep the night.

 

 

 

Artistic impression of Epictetus.
 

 

[2] Epictetus

 

The stoic Epictetus stated

In one of his philosophic drams

That “…the uneducated man blames

Man blames neither others nor himself.”

Him and Others fall into the gulf.

Only Blame remains un-negated.

 

What I’m left with disengages sea

What I’m left with is close to Irving

Layton’s “…the cosmos enrages me.”

 

Which it does. Up ahead, make a right.

I need pot roast. And croissants. Goodnight.

 

______________________

Jeffrey Burghauser is an English teacher in Columbus, Ohio. He was educated at SUNY-Buffalo, the University of Leeds, and currently studies the five-string banjo with a focus on pre-WWII picking styles. A former artist-in-residence at the Arad Arts Project (Israel), his poems have previously appeared (or are forthcoming) in Appalachian Journal, Lehrhaus, New English Review, and Iceview (Iceland).

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