Fear is Stronger than the
Calculation of Probability²
We’re whatever the Fear in
Our Psyche Contorts us into³
The Dog’s Bark isn’t Might but Fright⁴
A Bootless Courage has its own Temerity⁵
Fear always comes from a Split in yourself⁶
Biology Designs the Dance – Terror Times it⁷
It’s only the Small things that Frighten us: the
Immense, which can Kill us, make us Brave⁸
There’s only One thing that makes a Dream
Impossible to achieve: the Fear of Failure⁹
Fear no more, says the Heart –
Committing its Burdens to the
Sea, which Sighs Collectively
For All Sorrow, and Renews,
Begins, Collects, lets Fall¹⁰
¹ Laura Hershey, Delving
² George Eliot, Middlemarch
³ Obie Weathers, Buddhas on Death Row
⁴ Madagascar proverb
⁵ Alan Dugan, Barefoot Homiletics
⁶ Hermann Hesse tr. Damion Searls, Demian
⁷ Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
⁸ John Berger, From A to X
⁹ Paulo Coelho tr. Alan R. Clarke, The Alchemist
¹⁰ Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway