Blog

  • It Was Good: On Perfectionism, pt. 1

    It Was GoodIt was good(for even just a moment)to stand before a single tree;To let it be this!To let it be thus!And to let it be Other:To let it be the subjectof an oath, or… Read more

  • Be Imperfect and Die: On Letting Go and Taking Part

    Be Imperfect and DieBe imperfect, and die!Envy not the ancient constellations,With their stick-figure constancyfixed in the heavens.No! Forgive this conception and transcend it.Be a real constellation:Burning, ever-moving and gloriousfor your never-waiting, yourindifference to the supplicationof… Read more

  • On Emphasizing the Out-Breath: Finding Ground

    On Emphasizing the Out-BreathPlay your hunger.Strum it like a silver chord.Let it dance like a cool flameround the earthen walls ofthe fine ceramic vase of your body.Relish the out-breath.Without it there is no in-breath, no… Read more

  • A Prayer for Easter Sunday

    A PrayerI offer to you, Lord, my confusion.I offer to you my extremes.Let me be as a sapling in the wind,bending to the vicissitudes of my mind,bending to the response of Your will.Let me see… Read more

  • The Three Singers: A Personal Story

    The Three SingersI was brought downTo the place where all the world’s a poem, an art-garden,and all the people sculptors.Unwillingly admitted, in fact—a three-day sojourn among the cluttered, the broken-in.The fallen leaves, coloring still; not… Read more

  • Dissection: On Good Friday and Doing Science

    DissectionGod gave himself up to our dissection.An ultimate openness; a kenosis.“Leaves don’t exist as such”—sure.But can there be such a house with no foundation?Can there be haecceity all the way down?Things evolve at random when… Read more

  • Baby Bird: On Death and Living

    Baby birdBaby birdOn the sidewalk;Gone so young, never feathered;Once encased, never fettered—Through your intercession:Let my death be like yours—in a whisper;To a hymn sung by mi familia;For my tomb the whole world.And let them sing… Read more

  • The Frog and the Wren: On Authenticity and Becoming

    The Frog and the WrenI’ll make myself a characterif it enhance our storytimes.(Authenticity is not-being; it’s only not-to-do.The being is your game;It’s ultimately up to you.)This sort of divinationis our duty and our right:to seed… Read more

  • To Poetry and Magic

    To Poetry and MagicMy poems create their maker(I’m taller than I think I am).When I search among fields of choicesto call forth dialogue from noise,I grant peaceful power conduitto create myself by prophecyand reckon myself… Read more

  • A Meatball

    A MeatballI fold my napkin gingerly, like it’s afraid of my touch.There are so many sounds in the wall it’s like a quiet river.The cold outside makes our warmth more fragile, and that’s just as… Read more

Welcome to my blog!

I’m Mark, a PhD student and researcher at the intersection of AI and cognitive science. This blog more or less consists of free form reflection on whatever I am grappling with personally or thinking about professionally or philosophically. Opinions are my own.