Go for the gold: better one great column and some undistinguished ones than constant mediocrity.
quote by Allan Sloan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I May Well Be A Mediocrity
I MAY WELL BE A MEDIOCRITY
I may well be a mediocrity
One who tries and tries
But never really inspires-
I may well be one of the many
Called but not chosen-
I may be more another small unimportant disturbance
Than one whose work is of real meaning and value-
I may well be a mediocrity
And an ultimate nothing-
Whose words are now saved by a new technology
But will be dust forever -
I may well be a mediocrity
Despite wanting so much not to be-
I may well be a mediocrity
And probably am-
In which case I apologize
To the reader of this
If there is one
For taking your time.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Mediocrity
Mediocrity is the cursed of the damned!
Failure to great men
Who set their bows
And aim skywards
To strike their starry targets.
Mediocrity is success though
For lesser mortals...............
Short sighted non-visionaries
Who always hope for lady luck
To bail them out
Of their misfortune recurrent.
So then, for many
Mediocrity is success!
To a select few......
An abject failure!
poem by Enoch John
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I Am Not Proud Of Being A Mediocrity
I AM NOT PROUD OF BEING A MEDIOCRITY
I am not proud of being a mediocrity-
But if I am
Does this mean
I should stop writing forever?
Does it mean I should spend the rest of my life
In bitter angry lament?
If I am a mediocrity
And chances are good that I am
Then perhaps I should just try to live with it
And understand
The only one who's time will be wasted
And who will give attention to all this writing I have done
Is me.
Mediocrity or not,
I can still try to be a fairly decent human being.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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It had run as a column - I had worked at the paper since 1976, but the column had been running for 13 years, and I think it was a strong column, criticizing the war when the paper was supporting it.
quote by Robert Scheer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.
quote by Benjamin Disraeli
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Motor Car
The motor car is sullen, like a thing that should not be;
The motor car is master of Smart Society.
’Twas born of sweated genius and collared by a clown;
’Twas planned by Retribution to ride its riders down.
And straight for Caesar’s Column,
It runs to Caesar’s Column,
Last section, Caesar’s Column
To ride its riders down!
The motor car is shame-struck, for greed and misery,
For mad and hopeless self-lust, and the sins that need not be.
The motor car is vicious, for its conscience makes it so,
It aye would smash the victims while it runs the riders low.
And straight for Caesar’s Column,
Its goal is Caesar’s Column,
It longs for Caesar’s Column
To lay its riders low.
The motor car is maddened like a horse that’s had a fright,
The shameful day behind it and the Coming of the Night!
It flees across the country and it flees back to the town
And straight for Caesar’s Column to run its riders down.
And straight for Caesar’s Column,
What ho! for Caesar’s Column!
Hurrah! for Caesar’s Column!
To seal its riders down.
The motor car is reckless like a gambler losing fast;
The motor car’s in terror of the Future—and the Past;
The motor car is worn out and has passed Sin’s boundary by,
And is bound for Caesar’s Column where to pile its riders high.
It’s bound for Caesar’s Column
And marked for Caesar’s Column,
And doomed for Caesar’s Column
To pile its riders high.
The motor car is brainless, and scornful of all tears,
Its dust is in our faces, its giggle in our ears,
Its harsh laugh is the last laugh of the last lost soul alone,
’Tis nearing Caesar’s Column to set self-damned in stone.
Change here for Caesar’s Column!
All out for Caesar’s Column!
Past Hope—and Caesar’s Column
To lodge self-damned in stone.
I don’t know how ’twill happen, or when ’twill come to pass,
But folk shall yet pass sanely by river, tree and grass;
By homesteads and farm wagons, they’ll ride each pleasant mile,
And back from Caesar’s Column where the world went mad awhile.
And back from Caesar’s Column
With lessons from the Column;
Grown sane at Caesar’s Column
To save the world awhile.
poem by Henry Lawson
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Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
quote by Joseph Heller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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After The Poems What Will Be For Me?
After the poems, what will be for me?
I am now wholly in them
But they are not as good
As I dreamed
And I as a poet am not the answer to my own ambition.
Will it be ‘Stories’ next?
And then on to ‘Aphoristic reflections’ Pascal- like?
How will I do it?
Or will, as seems most likely now, how will I never do it?
I am the mediocre poet who is the mediocre writer who is the mediocre thinker who is mediocre in all he does
I am the mediocrity and my mediocrity makes me me.
Mediocre me- Pity pity the poor ambitious soul
Who would have been great, and is not.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Mediocrity would always win by force of numbers, but it would win only more mediocrity.
quote by Ellen Glasgow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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And If I Am A Mediocrity?
AND IF I AM A MEDIOCRITY?
And if I am a mediocrity?
And what I have written is not worthy of remembrance?
And if I belong to the great mass of those not good enough?
And if all I have done disappears as if it never were?
And I also?
Should I blame myself
Or simply say God made me not good enough?
Should I feel sad and a failure
Or simply resign myself to what is the case?
Should I protest in anger
Or simply go on meeting the obligations of my life
As best I can?
I know the answer.
Being the best person I can
Especially to those closest to me
Is what is most important.
Mediocre or not as a writer
I must try to be a decent human being-
This is what the service of God really means-
And this is what all of us can try to do,
Wherever we are in the world of work and accomplishment.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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They know that the column resonates in the community. They know that people like it, and yet they don't have room for one column once week that consistently got it right.
quote by Robert Scheer
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The bulk of the emails tend to come after a column. I can get about 2,000 after a column.
quote by Nicholas D. Kristof
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There Is A Poetry Of Mediocrity
There is a poetry of mediocrity-
One simply utters whatever is on one's mind
In whatever language it happens to come-
One says the simplest thing in the plainest way
One expresses the moment-
Anyone can write the poetry of mediocrity
And everyone can read it-
I know what it is
I have written it often
And you are reading it now.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Noblesse Oblige
I hold it the duty of one who is gifted
And specially dowered I all men’s sight,
To know no rest till his life is lifted
Fully up to his great gifts’ height.
He must mould the man into rare completeness,
For gems are only in gold refined.
He must fashion his thoughts into perfect sweetness,
And cast out folly and pride from his mind.
For he who drinks from a god’s gold fountain
Of art of music or rhythmic song
Must sift from his soul the chaff of malice,
And weed from his heart the roots of wrong.
Great gifts should be worn, like a crown befitting,
And not like gems in a beggar’s hands!
And the toil must be constant and unremitting
Which lifts up the king to the crown’s demands.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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From this column to that column may be a relief.
Intended And Meant To Enforce
Ignoring the opportunity,
To keep flourishing the growth of possibilities...
Leads to a diminishing of mediocrity.
And once a mediocrity encouraged leaves...
A dropping to scratch the bottom,
Invites a decadence to live and thrive...
As if intended and meant to enforce,
With an endorsement that is advocated.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them.
Joseph Heller in Catch-22
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.
quote by Napoleon Bonaparte
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It's Hard To Be Me
You see me everywhere, in my underwear
You may wonder what I'm here to sell
But underneath my stare, I'm so naked there
There are secrets I'm dying to tell
It's Hard to be Me
Nobody knows what it's like to be
The envy of mediocrity
If you could see
All my depth and complexity
I'd think you'd agree
It's Hard to be Me; It's Hard to be Me
I am up here alone, on my glamorous throne
Want to thank all you people down there
I was once an unknown, like you but I've grown
I have so much I'm hoping to share
It's Hard to be Me
Nobody knows what it's like to be
The envy of mediocrity
If you could see
All my depth and complexity
I'd think you'd agree
It's Hard to be Me, It's Hard to be Me
I guess you think that it's hard for you
Walking 'round in your little shoes
You don't know how I've sacrificed
To live this life, to look so nice
It's Hard to be Me
Nobody knows what it's like to be
The envy of mediocrity
If you could see
All my depth and complexity
I'd think you'd agree
It's Hard to be Me, It's Hard to be Me
Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me
song performed by by Cyndi Lauper
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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