Most will Proclaim everyone their own
Goodness—but a Faithful man who can find?²
We focus on the Good to emulate them,
We focus on the Bad to be reminded of
What must be changed within Ourselves—³
Allow the Best to be shown so that it
Reveals & Prevails over the worst.⁴
Purify the Inward sphere,
And the many shapes of evil that
Haunt the outward sphere will become
Shadowy phantoms, vanishing of their own accord—⁵
Never stop Sculpting your own statue, until the
Godlike splendor of Virtue shines forth to you!⁶
The good person will in time be Gorgeous.⁷
Integrity is the site in which
Intention and Action are as One—
In unison, seamless, without abrasion.⁸
Draw lines through the length & breadth of
The aggregate of our particular daily behaviors
And waves of life into his coves & inlets,
And where they intersect will be the
Heights & Depths of our Character.⁹
True Virtue does not act
And has no intentions.¹⁰
¹ Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
² Proverbs 20:6
³ Confucius tr. Edward Slingerland, Analects 7.22
⁴ Jose Martí tr. unknown, Our America
⁵ Nathaniel Hawthorne, Earth’s Holocaust
⁶ Plotinus tr. unknown, Enneads
⁷ Sappho tr. Aaron Poochigian, The Gorgeous Man Presents a Gorgeous View
⁸ Ann Lauterbach, Task: To Open
⁹ Henry David Thoreau, Walden
¹⁰ Lao Tzu tr. Charles Muller, Tao Te Ching 38