“Opener”

I am sure
There is a world too ignored
Of ideas to explore
That we really should look into more
It just might
Help us set our minds right
Make us more calm and upright
As we step through life and explore

Hello World!

Welcome to the first post on the Stoic Poet Page! At the time I’m writing this, I have little to no idea what will become of this website. I’m starting it as an “eh, why not?” project, and my intention is to reflect and explore Traditional Stoicism1 through the lens of poetry.

Without considering myself an expert on Stoicism, I do think I know more than the average person about the fine details of the Stoic philosophical system. After studying it for several years now, I should hope I would. I know next to nothing, however, about poetry. Besides the exposure I got from taking English and literature classes in school, I’m a complete poetry novice. So this should be a fun experiment of me trying to refine and express my knowledge of Stoicism through a new-to-me medium, hopefully producing something that is helpful and worth reading for at least someone else out there. If that’s you, then hello, and welcome! Thanks for being here.

If you’ve discovered this project of mine toward the beginning and are planning to stick around for a bit, get ready for plenty of mediocre poetry coming soon. Maybe I’ll write some good stuff, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty of bad poems as I learn.

If the project has been around for a while now and you’ve curiously sought out the first post, then hello to the future! Hopefully something became of this project. I’ll see in time, and you’ll already know by now, I guess!

That first poem that I wrote today is my expression of wanting to dive back into the roots of studying and practicing Stoicism. To prioritize it in my life again.

Here goes, I guess!

  1. I prefer and practice Traditional Stoicism over other modern and academic variants of Stoicism. Traditional Stoicism aims to preserve the Stoic philosophical system as close as is reasonably possible to the way the Ancient Stoics conceived of and practiced it as a way of life. I like to think of Traditional Stoicism as trying to adapt our modern ways of thinking to Stoicism rather than adapting Stoicism to our modern ways of thinking. Also see Chris Fisher’s helpful explanation of this topic on his Traditional Stoicism website and blog. ↩︎