The Essence of the Essential ( poetry challenge)
Essence: the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something.
Without essence, we are nothing,
whether, as some say,
it precedes our existence,
or whether, as others maintain,
our existence precedes our essence:
essence is essential.
Through their essence,
all manner of things are essential:
essential fashion accessories,
essential greatest symphonies,
essential novels to read before we die,
essential sixties hits, essential seventies hits,
essential jazz-greats, essential movies,
to list but a few.
It is essential, therefore,
that the essence of these essentials
informs our lives,
so essential that
they precede our existence,
because, without them, we are nothing,
even though our existence precedes them.
.
Phylosophy at its best, Gerald.
Thanks, Luigi. My exposure to Sartre fifty years ago had to be useful eventually, even if tongue in cheek.
Cheers,
Gerald
I am not sure we are nothing with or without anything essential, I think we will be surprised in the end. Our Essence was essentially able to exist, the Mother of all Essential Things is Existence. what do you think?
I am also not sure we are something with or without anything essential. There are many who believe everything is erased and rewound again and again. In which case we are not living when we exist. When we cease to exist we automatically become the idea of an identity which can be part of anyone’s script/story. Do we control where we appear as characters? And how?
Sorry, I can’t get into a debate about my poem. It is only a semi-humorous response to the poetry challenge. Its ‘inspiration’ stems from trying to live with the two conflicting metaphysical standpoints: “Essence precedes existence” and “Existence precedes essence” linked to play on the meaning of the ambiguous word “essential.”
okay. thanks for writing a poem
Yeh…thats it…… whatever Nemo just said is essential to the essence of my understanding every word he said 🙂 I only did CSE’s