So Passionate. Poem by Michael Walker

So Passionate.

Rating: 5.0


(Hamlet: Give me that man/That is not passion's slave and I will wear him / in my heart's core, aye in my heart of hearts / as I do thee. `Hamlet', III,2. William Shakespeare.

Anyone can write down their own list of passions
and those lists are sure to vary from person to person.
Aristotle listed thirteen passions: Descartes had six.
Passions are stronger and more often expressed than emotions.
I remember a lecturer saying that opposite passions,
like love and hate, though extremes, are actually linked.
I have noticed people who are passionate in temperament,
while plenty of others come across too cold for me.

Passion, which enters the mind through the senses or reason,
involves the subject and another person or object causing it.
I have loved few people in one sense, in another, many.
Even those I like in photographs seem real enough to me.
I love many things, like books, shiny cars, polished furniture
and the feel of new, clean sheets before I fall asleep.
I have had good reason to hate those who criticised me,
but, after time passed, I forgave them unconditionally.

I think that joy is one of the best passions.
I know that sadness is one of the worst.
Despair is even worse, and could lead to suicide.
I think that anger, even rage, can sometimes be justified.
Now and then, fear and anxiety come knocking on my door,
uninvited and unwanted, caused by negative situations.
Courage does not come naturally to me but who knows?
I feel my heart beating faster and the adrenalin flows.

_31 October,2014.

Thursday, October 30, 2014
Topic(s) of this poem: happiness
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
The stanzas are in ottava rima, without the strict rhyme scheme. But I still wanted to put some rhymes in there.I am passionate by nature, an advantage for this topic. Although the poem is about passions, which I saw on your list, a person has todeal with their passions to reach happiness. There is much said about finding a midpoint between extremes of opposite passions, to be happy. This could be right.
I found `The Passions of the Soul', by Rene Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, very useful.That is where I read that the passions that enter through the senses (sight) are generally stronger than those situations we remember(reason) or imagine.
For the record, Descartes's six passions are: wonder, desire,
love, hatred, joy and sadness. There can be subdivisions like: sadness
subdivided into sorrow, despair, unhappiness. Hatred-anger, rage etc.
I think Descartes is right in having six main passions.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Douglas Scotney 03 May 2018

nice thinking, Michael

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Michael Walker 05 May 2018

Thanks so much. I don't apologize for writing an academic poem, because I think that you can analyse the passions scientifically. It helps that I am a most passionate person.

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Bharati Nayak 27 September 2016

A wonderful write exploring how our emotions of various hues are co-related and they are our 'Passions'of different degrees.Passion for a car or neat bed sheet, quite different from passion from poetry. Our joy or sadness, two opposite emotions are also our passion and linked to each other.Thanks for showing 'passion' in a new light.

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Michael Walker 05 May 2018

Yes, I recall a French lecturer saying, on Montaigne, that opposite passions are linked and even close. You widen very effectively the definition of 'passions' to a car, clean bed linen, which I am passionate about too. Thanks.

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