Eye Exams: A Book of Epigrams.

By Richard Krause

A modern epigram is a concise, often witty short statement that has a twist. It has a range of possibilities that the aphorism’s established truth often lacks. Epigrams can go where the writer wants without worrying about being set in stone, or hardened by an anticipated veracity. You want epigrams to be true certainly, but the expectation is that they need not be for all time, and that sheer play can often be their objective.
Epigrams can be stabs at thought, sudden insights, or summations of a life. The fact that they don’t parade in the best dress gives freedom to all types of garb; tattered rags, even so occasional nakedness is exposed. Ultimately writing epigrams exposes the reader as well as the writer, and by extension all human nature -- broadening our observations of the species. The writer is both estranged and embedded, the malady and the cure. His observations are his instruments; he doctors, observes, uncovers, and makes those imaginary incisions that always address the often-necessary ignorance we live by. The writer of epigrams is not utilitarian, but reaches beyond himself and often at his own expense through both darkness and blinding light not knowing what exactly will appear. He would like to take credit for what he does, feel powerful and confident, but he is a slave to a mind and emotions he little understands. What comes from his labors is sporadic and the results are never certain. In fact, he is at the mercy of what is beyond his own intellect, or even identifiable abilities. What is evident is only his sheer labor. He is routinely the whipping boy for what he doesn’t know. But he is never ashamed at being so much of a stranger to himself that he doesn’t capitalize on it every chance he gets. It is a productive estrangement that daily leads him out of himself and back. He knows he can’t see straight and that observations are personal and crooked by the biases of his own mind that he calls optical because they are a way of looking. They allow him the illusion of total freedom in his lifelong mission to straighten out what he sees for at least a measure of clarity. The twists are inevitable and hopefully provide the aesthetic value that makes them salvageable within the confines of a single sentence or two possessing enough tension to justify the words being on the page. He titles the current batch of epigrams Eye Exams to transfer the burden to others to the extent that reading him may help gauge their own visual acuity.
He started out carrying a notebook walking the streets of New York City, riding the subways, or just sitting in his taxi cab at night with a notepad on the front seat, writing what he saw and what occurred to him. Every morning he’d sit down and the shorts would be copied or new ones would come. At first he looked through all he had read to find them. How could they come from him? Who was he to write them? But except for a few, he soon realized they were his and decided from then on he would go where his mind led him.
Eye Exams is the production of the last four or five years, his struggle with the world outside and within. His sole object is understanding. The twists he imagines make them his, part of the aesthetic that confers value. Occasionally something comes out unadorned as a simple truth. He is surprised by that, feeling he has no more right to it than anyone else. Some that come from within are so thoroughly his own nature that he has to look on them as estranged. Writing these confers a certain immunity. He cannot be touched with shame or embarrassment, any more than he can be entirely proud of them.
For any readers still with him, the author hopes you will find something here you either were or were not looking for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Propertius Press
• Release date: Feb 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370131679

Richard Krause

Mr. Krause lives in Southwest Florida, he is sixty-six years old, and he is a retired government worker, He has a degree in Network Engineering and Administration specializing in Computer Security, and has an extensive background in Environmental Sciences. He is married with two adult children and three furry four-legged children. Mr. Krause has been writing books and short stories since way back in 1982. Mainstream publishing has overlooked his work and he has now decided to move on to self-publishing with Smashwords and Amazon. His first published work is "The Book On Evil, Wicked, Mean & Nasty / A Whimsical Guide to Payback and Revenge" Later works include "The Fine Art of Getting Even" available through SmashWords.com and Amazon.com and "The Ancient Wisdom of an Old Shadow Warrior" available in paperback and Kindle through Amazon.com and paperback through Barnes & Noble.com. His most recent work is "The Plucking of the Golden Years Goose" a study on the scams, frauds, and abuses perpetrated against the elderly and how to recognize them and guard against them. He is currently working on a space opera trilogy, "The Far Star Trilogy" consisting of "The Perilous Star", "Trouble on Tyree", and "Destiny's Star". He expects to finish these books within the next six months to a year. His hobbies other than writing and reading are, scale modeling, he builds and paints 54mm military miniatures, cutting and polishing semiprecious gemstones which he has found on his yearly mining vacations and then turning them into unique handcrafted jewelry pieces, he also does gunsmithing of vintage weapons.

Book preview

Eye Exams: A collection of epigrams. Copyright 2019 by Richard Krause. All rights reserved. Published in US by Propertius Press, Warrenton, VA. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

ISBN: 9781370131679 (electronic)

ISBN: 9780359496518 (paper)

Available in eBook and Paperback from Propertius Press. Cover art by Dan Stone. Cover design, graphics, and layout by Stephanie Bridges-Bledsoe. Copyright 2019 by Propertius Press and Richard Krause. All rights reserved.

Propertius Press

Warrenton, Virginia

http://www.propertiuspress.com

email: [e-mail]

Eye Exams

a Collection of Epigrams

by Richard Krause

Acknowledgments

To the late Wayne Heller whose pleasure in wit inspired me. Thanks to Camelia Elias who published my first collection of epigrams, Optical Biases, and to Olivia Dresher for her encouragement and generous advice. I also wish to thank Susannah B. Smith of Propertius Press for taking the chance on my work.

Table of Contents

Preface

I

II

III

IV

About the Author

Preface

A modern epigram is a concise, often witty short statement that has a twist. It has a range of possibilities that the aphorism’s established truth often lacks. Epigrams can go where the writer wants without worrying about being set in stone, or hardened by an anticipated veracity. You want epigrams to be true certainly, but the expectation is that they need not be for all time, and that sheer play can often be their objective.

Epigrams can be stabs at thought, sudden insights, or summations of a life. The fact that they don’t parade in the best dress gives freedom to all types of garb – tattered rags, even – so occasional nakedness is exposed. Ultimately, writing epigrams exposes the reader as well as the writer, and by extension all human nature, broadening our observations of the species. The writer is both estranged and embedded, the malady and the cure. His observations are his instruments; he doctors, observes, uncovers, and makes those imaginary incisions that always address the often necessary ignorance we live by.

The writer of epigrams is not utilitarian, but reaches beyond himself, and often at his own expense, through both darkness and blinding light, not knowing what exactly will appear. He would like to take credit for what he does, feel powerful and confident, but he is a slave to a mind and emotions he little understands. What comes from his labors is sporadic, and the results are never certain. In fact, he is at the mercy of what is beyond his own intellect, or even identifiable abilities. What is evident is only his sheer labor.

He is routinely the whipping boy for what he doesn’t know. But he is never ashamed at being so much of a stranger to himself that he doesn’t capitalize on it every chance he gets. It is a productive estrangement that daily leads him out of himself and back. He knows he can’t see straight and that observations are personal and crooked by the biases of his own mind that he calls optical because they are a way of looking. They allow him the illusion of total freedom in his lifelong mission to straighten out what he sees for at least a measure of clarity. The twists are inevitable, and hopefully provide the aesthetic value that makes them salvageable within the confines of a single sentence or two possessing enough tension to justify the words being on the page. He titles the current batch of epigrams Eye Exams to transfer the burden to others to the extent that reading him may help gauge their own visual acuity.

He started out carrying a notebook walking the streets of New York City, riding the subways, or just sitting in his taxi cab at night with a notepad on the front seat, writing what he saw and what occurred to him. Every morning he’d sit down and the shorts would be copied or new ones would come. At first, he looked through all he had read to find them. How could they come from him? Who was he to write them? But except for a few, he soon realized they were his and decided from then on he would go where his mind led him.

Eye Exams is the production of the last four or five years, his struggle with the world outside and within. His sole object is understanding. The twists he imagines make them his, part of the aesthetic that confers value. Occasionally something comes out unadorned as a simple truth. He is surprised by that, feeling he has no more right to it than anyone else. Some that come from within are so thoroughly his own nature that he has to look on them as estranged. Writing